WORLD / Asia-Pacific

N. Korea vows to continue missile tests
(AP)
Updated: 2006-07-06 16:07

Bush spoke by phone to Japan's Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi and they agreed to cooperate in pushing for a U.N. resolution to impose sanctions on North Korea, officials said. The president also spoke to South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun and they agreed to cooperate on diplomacy, a South Korean official said.

"One thing we have learned is that the rocket didn't stay up for very long," Bush said about the Taepodong-2 missile that failed 42 seconds after liftoff Tuesday. "It tumbled into the sea."

"It doesn't diminish my desire to solve this problem," he said in Washington.

In its statement, the North Korean Foreign Ministry said the launches were unrelated to the six-party talks, and that Pyongyang was still committed to the peaceful denuclearization of the Korean peninsula. The statement accused the U.S. of being hostile to the communist regime, and blamed Washington for blocking progress at the talks with its financial restrictions.

"Under these conditions, it is clear to every one that there is no need for us to hold off on missile launches," it said.

The failure of the Taepodong-2 missile, the object of intense international attention for more than a month suggested a catastrophic failure of the rocket's first, or booster, stage. A working version of the intercontinental missile could potentially reach the United States with a light payload. The North also fired six shorter-range missiles on Wednesday

Tokyo responded swiftly by barring North Korean officials from traveling to Japan, and banned one of its trading boats from entering Japanese waters for six months.

In South Korea, separated from the North by the world's most heavily armed border, officials said the tests would affect inter-Korean initiatives such as the dispatch of food and fertilizer from the South to the North, but stressed that diplomacy was the best way to solve the crisis.

Lee Jong-seok told the National Assembly in a hearing Thursday that Cabinet-level meetings between the two Koreas scheduled for next week should go ahead, and that Seoul would press ahead with cross-border projects with North Korea.

Both Japan and South Korea are within range of North Korean missiles.

The Security Council held an emergency session at Japan's request, and council experts met late Wednesday for about 1 1/2 hours to discuss the draft resolution. Experts will meet again Thursday morning and council ambassadors may then meet in the afternoon to review progress, the diplomats said, speaking on condition of anonymity because the session was closed.
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