National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley was meeting Wednesday with his South
Korean counterpart, a meeting that now will be dominated by the tests, which
could plunge global relations with the reclusive communist nation farther into a
deep freeze.
"We do consider it provocative behavior," Hadley told reporters in a
telephone briefing Tuesday.
US President Bush, who was at the White House with family and friends
gathered to celebrate the Fourth of July and his 60th birthday on Thursday, was
notified of the test firings, and consulted with Rice and Defense Secretary
Donald H. Rumsfeld.
"It wasn't that he (the president) was surprised because we've seen this
coming for a while," Hadley said. "I think his instinct is that this just shows
the defiance of the international community by North Korea."
The test-firings, however, present a weighty national security challenge for
Bush. The president named North Korea, along with Iran and Iraq, in his "axis of
evil," yet has focused most of his attention on the later two nations even
though Pyongyang claims it already has nuclear weapons.
"The American officials have said that if the North Koreans proceed with a
test, there are going to be consequences," said Robert Einhorn, former assistant
secretary of state for nonproliferation in the Clinton administration and chief
US negotiator with North Korea from 1996 to 2000. "If there aren't consequences,
the Bush administration is going to look like a paper tiger."
The challenge for Bush is to mobilize international support for penalizing
the North Koreans. The United States and several of North Korea's neighbors had
issued stern warnings, saying a missile test would mean further isolation and
sanctions.
"It's open defiance of the Bush administration," Einhorn said. "The six
launches probably had a military function, but it also has a political
motivation. It was kind of `In-your-face America."'
The White House stressed that the nuclear standoff with North Korea was not a
battle between Washington and Pyongyang. The United States, Japan, Russia, China
and South Korea have been involved in so-called six-party talks on the issue,
but those negotiations have been stalled since North Korea boycotted them in
September. "The appropriate thing is to pull together all the parties and figure
out in a unified way the best way to proceed," Snow said.
News of the missile tests, which broke shortly before hundreds of guests
began lining up at a White House gate to get to the South Lawn to watch
fireworks, caused initial confusion in the West Wing. Officials first confirmed
that North Korea had tested four missiles. A short time later, they confirmed a
fifth and sixth. Minutes later they said they no longer were certain of the
sixth. Hours later, however, they said a total of six were fired.
