NORTH KOREA: North Korea test-fired a missile and accused the US of conducting spy flights, upstaging the inauguration yesterday of South Korea's new president attended by the US Secretary of State, Mr Colin Powell.
The White House called the test diplomatic extortion aimed at forcing a compromise in the stand-off over North Korea's alleged nuclear weapons programme.
"This is North Korea's way of saying please pay me," White House spokesman Mr Ari Fleischer said. "North Korea has a history of engaging in rather bizarre actions and then expecting the world to pay them or negotiate with them to give them something in exchange for them stopping doing what they shouldn't have done in the first place."
The US is refusing to engage in a direct dialogue with North Korea until Pyongyang dismantles its alleged nuclear weapons programme in a verifiable way. News of the test rattled financial markets in Asia and the US.
Mr Powell, however, called it a "fairly innocuous" launch of an old missile for which North Korea had given advance notice. In his inaugural speech, South Korean President, Mr Roh Moo-hyun, condemned North Korea's suspected nuclear weapons programme as a "grave threat to world peace".
"It is up to Pyongyang whether to go ahead and obtain nuclear weapons or to get guarantees for the security of its regime and international economic support," he said. But he highlighted differences with Washington on how to respond to the threat by pledging to work for a more equitable and reciprocal relationship with the US. The dovish Mr Roh, a 56-year-old former human rights lawyer, has ruled out force against Pyongyang. The US insists that all options must be kept open.
The divergent views risk a half-century alliance forged in the Cold War and nurtured under successive pro-US military presidents in South Korea, which hosts 37,000 US troops. Mr Powell and Mr Roh sought to paper over the rift.
In conciliatory remarks, Mr Powell said he had told Mr Roh that Washington had no plans to use military force to deal with North Korea. "There are no armies on the march," he told Mr Roh, adding that Washington would consult Seoul before taking any action.
"I think he was reassured by my comments," Mr Powell told a news conference at which he also unveiled US plans to resume food aid to hungry and impoverished North Korea.
"I believe sooner or later there will be a dialogue involving all of the interested parties, and the United States will participate in that dialogue and hopefully we will find a peaceful solution to this problem," he said. Mr Roh was quoted by South Korea's Yonhap news agency as telling reporters: "I frankly don't understand all this talk about a Korea-US dispute." He said "minor differences" could be ironed out through dialogue, and he hoped to take up an invitation to visit President Bush.
Japanese Prime Minister, Mr Junichiro Koizumi, also sought to play down the missile test, saying he had not discussed it with Mr Roh.
"We agreed that even if the North takes a provocative attitude, we should deal with it calmly and carefully," he said.