AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE,
Washington: The United States on Tuesday launched frenzied diplomacy to respond to North Korea for a “provocative” wave of missile launches but said the rockets posed no immediate threat to US territory.
Top US officials immediately reached out to their counterparts in China, Japan, Russia and South Korea — US partners in six-nation talks on Pyongyang's nuclear ambitions — and were weighing an array of diplomatic options.
It was unclear what they would include, though one senior US official suggested that the six-party talks were the preferred venue but that Washington was looking at possible UN Security Council action down the road.
The senior US envoy for North Korean issues, Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill, was preparing to leave for the region on Wednesday, when the South Korea national security adviser was due at the White House.
US officials said that the five missiles included a long-range Taepodong 2 thought to be able to reach the United States but that the rocket failed less than a minute in flight and crashed, like the others, in the Sea of Japan.
“We do consider it provocative behavior,” said White House national security adviser Stephen Hadley, but “a missile that fails after 40 seconds is not a threat to the United States.”
US President George W. Bush — who was celebrating his 60th birthday two days early, on the US national holiday — was briefed each time, Hadley told reporters on a conference call organized by the White House.
Bush stayed out of sight but discussed the volatile situation with US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, and Hadley, the White House said.
“We've been doing a lot of preparations for this. It wasn't that he was surprised. I think his instinct is this just shows the defiance of the international community by North Korea,” said Hadley.
The White House listed five launches, with a sixth unconfirmed, and said that North Korea had violated a missile test moratorium and perhaps also the September 2005 agreement it reached in the six-party talks.
Hadley broke down the launches: The first was a SCUD-C at 2:33 pm (1833 GMT) which landed short of Japan; then a No-dong or SCUD-C at 3:04 pm (1904 GMT), which also splashed down in the Sea of Japan; then the Taepodong-2, which lifted off at 4:01 pm (2001 GMT) but vanished less than a minute later.
The last two were believed to be a SCUD that was fired at 6:12 pm (2212 GMT) and a Nodong at 6:31 pm (2231 GMT). Both fell short of Japan.
News of the launch hit the United States as it basked in its Independence Day holiday and prepared to enjoy traditional fireworks displays, and reveled in the launch of its space shuttle Discovery after two weather delays.
It also fell as Washington worked with its partners in diplomatic efforts to ensure that Iran — with North Korea, the two surviving members of the “axis of evil that once included Iraq — does not get nuclear weapons.
A senior US State Department official, who requested anonymity, said an emergency session of the UN Security Council was a possibility. “We got some potential for a Security Council meeting, certainly not tonight but later on in the week,” he said.
Mike Cuckarek, a spokesman for the US Northern Command, said, “There have been five missile launches. Four were short-range ballistic missiles and one was a Taepodong.
“There was no threat to the US or its territories. We continue to monitor the situation,” Cuckarek.
US officials said the launches of the short-range missiles did not violate a unilateral moratorium on tests of longer-range weapons announced by North Korea in 1999 and reaffirmed in 2002 and 2004.
But the launch of the Taepodong was another matter. “The secretary has said the launching of this would be a provocative act and and we can safely say that that's what it is,” said the senior State Department official.
