U.S., Allies Seek Punitive Action Against N. Korea

Japan's ambassador to the United Nations, Kenzo Oshima, told reporters after a two-hour emergency meeting of the 15-nation Security Council that the U.N. body needed to send a "swift, strong and resolute" message to North Korea that its action is unacceptable.

John R. Bolton, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, said the council's reaction to the missile tests highlighted North Korea's growing isolation. "No member defended what the North Koreans have done," Bolton said. "I think there is support for sending a clear signal to Pyongyang," the North Korean capital.

South Korean officials joined the United States and Japan in verbally condemning the launches, but officials in Seoul, the South Korean capital, said they were still "carefully considering" whether to follow through with threats to cut off humanitarian aid in the event of a missile launch.

Analysts and some diplomats involved in the six-nation nuclear talks said the first casualty of the missile tests might be the talks themselves. For more than six months, North Korea has resisted returning to the negotiating table, citing "sanctions" imposed late last year against financial institutions that the U.S. Treasury Department linked to suspected counterfeiting, money laundering and drug smuggling operations by the North Korean government. The missile tests, analysts and diplomats said, made the chance of a compromise deal between the key players -- the United States and the North Koreans -- less likely.

Christopher R. Hill, the Bush administration's top negotiator in the six-party talks, said that North Korea would not be offered any new incentives to suspend its nuclear weapons program.

"No one is interested in sweetening the deal," Hill said. "The question is how to get the North Koreans to come and implement their part of that deal."

Analysts said North Korea may have conducted the tests in the belief that it would not win any concessions from the Bush administration. "The U.S. has called for North Korea to return to the six-party talks, but after what the North Koreans have done, the talks have in effect fallen apart," said Terumasa Nakanishi, a North Korean expert at Kyoto University in Japan. "They have violated their promise not to escalate the situation. There is no trust left."

[South Korea media outlets on Thursday morning cited senior officials in Seoul as saying that North Korea could be preparing to launch three to five additional short- and medium-range missiles. North Korea reportedly warned local fishing vessels to stay clear of the missile testing cite until Tuesday, and intelligence data suggested possible launch preparations.]

Officials said the next moves would be determined by a blizzard of back-door diplomacy going on in Asian and European capitals and at the United Nations. Taro Aso, Japan's foreign minister, was joining Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in attempting to woo China, South Korea and European powers into a tough line on North Korea.

North Korea experts said the options for the Bush administration remain limited, particularly if the Chinese and South Koreans were reluctant to impose tough economic sanctions. Instead, many said, it was more likely that Japan and the United States would seek to continue isolating North Korea by slowly tightening economic sanctions. Japanese officials, for instance, indicated they might be prepared to halt millions of dollars in remittances that are sent annually to North Korea from Koreans living in Japan.

Diplomats and analysts have speculated that North Korea may have conducted the missile tests in the hope of winning concessions similar to those offered by the Bush administration to Iran in an effort to stop its nuclear program.

Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi said North Korea's strategy was irrelevant. Referring to the tests, he said: "No matter what their intention might be, there is nothing positive they can gain."

Faiola reported from Tokyo. Correspondent Maureen Fan in Beijing, staff writers Michael Fletcher and Robin Wright in Washington and special correspondents Akiko Yamamoto in Tokyo and Joohee Cho in Seoul contributed to this report.