WASHINGTON - President George W. Bush pushed on Thursday for a united international response to North Korea after the impoverished, communist state test-fired a barrage of missiles and vowed more launches.
After discussing North Korea's actions with the leaders of China, Russia, Japan and South Korea, Bush said it was important for them all to speak with one voice.
But he was finding it difficult to achieve such unity in the face of Russian and Chinese objections to a U.N. Security Council resolution, drafted by Japan, demanding a worldwide halt on funds and technology for Pyongyang's missile program.
"It is in our interests that we send a clear message to the leaders of North Korea," Bush said at a White House news conference with Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper.
In the face of almost universal condemnation of the tests, a defiant North Korea on Thursday vowed to launch more missiles and threatened to use force if the international community tried to stop it.
The military "will go on with missile launch exercises as part of its efforts to bolster deterrent for self-defense in the future," North Korea's official KCNA news agency quoted a Foreign Ministry spokesman as saying.
North Korea "will have no option but to take stronger physical actions of other forms, should any other country dare take issue with the exercises and put pressure upon it".
U.S. Missile Defense
Officials say North Korea launched at least six missiles and as the international community fumed, fired off a seventh some 12 hours later.
The missiles included a long-range Taepodong-2, which U.S. officials said flew for less than a minute before splashing into the sea west of Japan.
In an interview with CNN's Larry King, Bush said the U.S. military had been prepared to shoot down the missiles.
While intercept-test failures and technical glitches have delayed development of the U.S. missile defense system, commanders say it does have a rudimentary capability against a limited threat such as that potentially posed by North Korea.
South Korea's defense minister told a parliamentary committee an analysis of equipment and personnel being moved in and out of a missile-launch site in North Korea suggested the possibility of more launches, Yonhap news agency reported.
Some analysts say North Korea was trying to remind the world that the risks of conflict were serious on the Korean peninsula, where some 30,000 U.S. troops are stationed on the Cold War's last frontier.
"North Korea may or may not face a few hard weeks or months in reprisal, but it has reminded everyone just how serious a threat North Korea can be," said Anthony Cordesman in an analysis for the Center for Strategic & International Studies.
North Korea has for years been trying to draw Washington into direct talks, seeking a grand deal to end the technical state of war on the peninsula that has persisted since the 1950-53 Korea War ended in an armed truce instead of a peace treaty.
No Bilateral Talks
But Bush rejected the idea of any bilateral talks with North Korean leader Kim Jong-il.
"I think the best way to solve this problem diplomatically is for there to be other nations around the table with us, so that when he looks out and he looks at the table, he looks at the world," Bush said in the Larry King interview.
Bush has been in touch with Chinese President Hu Jintao, Russian President Vladimir Putin, Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, and South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun over how to respond to the missile launches.
Putin, in a televised webcast, said concern about North Korean missiles should not trigger an emotional reaction "that would drown out common sense."
China's Hu told Bush he opposed "anything that would threaten peace and stability" on the Korean peninsula, the White House said.
China and Russia, along with the United States, Japan and the two Koreas are taking part in six-party talks aimed at inducing North Korea to abandon its nuclear programs in exchange for aid and security guarantees.
The talks have have stalled since November as Pyongyang resists U.S. threats of financial sanctions based on claims that Pyongyang was involved in drug trafficking and counterfeiting U.S. cash.
