U.S. seeking Pyongyang's isolation if it tests long-range missile

The United States is trying to rally other countries to threaten North Korea with further isolation if it persists in seeking to test long-range ballistic missiles.

Photo: U.S. seeking Pyongyang's isolation if it tests long-range missile

On Tuesday, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice spoke by telephone to South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon, while U.N. Ambassador John Bolton spoke to members of the U.N. Security Council in New York, deputy State Department spokesman Adam Ereli said.

The discussions were described as preliminary and with broad international coordination as the goal. The idea, Ereli said, "is to see how we can work together to support security and stability in the pensinsula."

As President George W. Bush flew to Europe Tuesday aboard Air Force One, White House spokesman Tony Snow declined to elaborate on what consequences North Korea might face.

"We are simply not going to tip our hand," Snow said. " Just because you're not hearing it doesn't mean they aren't."

"There seems to be a desire to create a sense of crisis" by the North Koreans, said national security adviser Stephen Hadley, also on the trip with Bush. "We have tried to convince them that the kind of attnetion they would get would not be constructive."

North Korea, not yielding, declared Tuesday it has a right to test missiles despite a 1999 moratorium, reaffirmed in 2002.

Ereli declined to estimate when North Korea might conduct a test. Ereli also said there had been no direct U.S. contact with North Korea.

"Our preferred course of action is that there not be a missile launch or a missile test, and we've made that clear," Ereli said.

"And we have also made clear that any such action would result in Noth Korea's futher isolation in the international community," he said.

Bolton, speaking in Washington, told reporters the first priority before the Security Council was to convince North Korea not to conduct a long-range missile test.

"We're discussing a range of things that fall within the Security Council's domain, given that the launch would constitute a threat to international peace and security," Bolton said, reports AP.

O.Ch.