A U.S. professor has raised doubts over the efficacy of a missile defense system being pursued by the Bush administration to counter a perceived threat from North Korean missiles.

Frank Gibney, a political science professor at Pomona College in California, said dialogue, not the anti-missile defense system, is the best means to counter the North Korean missile threat.

In an article contributed to the Los Angeles Times Sunday, Professor Gibney said that "there is scant likelihood that Pyongyang's Taepodong missile will ever be fired since North Korea's leaders know armed conflict with the U.S. would result in their country's destruction."

Professor Gibney argued Washington plans to pump some 40 billion dollars over the next five years into the anti-missile system that he claimed would have a "1-in-1,000 chance of knocking out a Taepodong missile that has a 1-in-1,000 chance of ever being fired.