A top U.S. Defense Department official says North Korea’s failed rocket launch last week indicates that Pyongyang has made little progress in its spaceflight program.

Lieutenant General Patrick O’Reilly, who is the director of the Missile Defense Agency under the Defense Department, made the assessment when he testified before the Senate Appropriations defense subcommittee on Wednesday.

O’Reilly said a lot of tests and flight testing are required to develop missile technologies. He said the North has not made those efforts, and the lack of progress was apparent in last week’s launch.

Meanwhile, during a hearing of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, U.S. legislators raised suspicions that technology from China is being used in Pyongyang's efforts to develop missiles.

Committee Chairwoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and Representative Howard Berman noted that recent media reports showed a truck of apparent Chinese origin carrying missiles at a military parade in Pyongyang last weekend.