The Bush administration yesterday dismissed North Korea's threat to test-fire more missiles and pressed for international efforts to get the communist regime to "cease and desist" from such actions.
"We're certainly not going to overreact ... to these wild statements out of Pyongyang and North Korea," said Undersecretary Nicholas Burns. "We've seen them before."
The North Korean Foreign Ministry, in a statement carried by the state-run Korean Central News Agency, insisted that the communist state had the right to conduct missile tests and argued the weapons were needed for defense.
On Wednesday, the country launched several missiles, including a long-range Taepodong-2 missile -- the object of intense international attention for more than a month -- that failed 42 seconds after liftoff, suggesting a catastrophic failure of the rocket's first, or booster, stage.
That heartened US officials, since an earlier version of the missile -- last tested in 1998 -- failed later in its flight, apparently due to a third-stage malfunction. A working version of the intercontinental missile, with a top range of 8,045km to 12,065km, could potentially reach the US with a light payload.
"One thing we have learned is that the rocket didn't stay up for very long," President George W. Bush said on Wednesday. "It tumbled into the sea."
The South Korean press reported yesterday that the North had three or four short or medium-range missiles on launch pads ready for firing.
Burns, asked on a round of morning television news shows about North Korea's latest threat, said: "I think the North Koreans would like to pit the United States against themselves in a one-on-one battle of wills. We're not going to fall for that."
Instead, Burns said, the US would work to muster international pressure on North Korea to "cease and desist" such actions.
"We are much stronger, frankly, from a diplomatic standpoint, and much better off if we have a wide range of countries working together and sending the same message to the North Koreans," Burns said.
On Wednesday night, Bush spoke by phone to Japan's and South Korea's leaders and stressed the need for a unified response in the UN and elsewhere to the North's missile tests, the White House said in a statement. He also told the leaders that he seeks a diplomatic solution through the six-party talks, which had sought to deal with North Korea's nuclear ambitions but were suspended last fall.
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