The United States believes North Korea's artillery attack on a South Korean island this week was an isolated action and Pyongyang is not preparing for an extended military campaign, the State Department said today.
The US military believes the attack is linked to the succession of the reclusive state's leadership, said Admiral Mike Mullen, the top US military officer.
"This was, in our view, a one-off, premeditated act," State Department spokesman PJ Crowley told reporters. "Without getting into intelligence matters, we don't see that North Korea is ... preparing for an extended military confrontation."
Both Mr Mullen and Mr Crowley said China should take a leading role in resolving the crisis.
Mr Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the United States was working with allies on ways to respond but said: "It's very important for China to lead."
"The one country that has influence in Pyongyang is China and so their leadership is absolutely critical," Mr Mullen told a US television talk show.
Mr Crowley said the United States expects China to use its influence to get North Korea to cease what he called its provocative behavior, saying Beijing could play a central role in helping to calm the situation.
"China is pivotal to moving North Korea in a fundamentally different direction," the spokesman added.
"China does have influence with North Korea and we would hope and expect that China will use that influence, first to reduce tensions that have arisen as a result of North Korean provocations and then secondly (to) continue to encourage North Korea to take affirmative steps to denuclearise," he said.
North Korea yesterday fired a barrage of artillery shells at the island of Yeonpyeong, killing two South Korean soldiers and civilians. The attack was the heaviest since the Korean War ended in 1953 and marked the first civilian deaths in an assault since the bombing of a South Korean airliner in 1987.
The nuclear-powered USS George Washington, which carries 75 warplanes and has a crew of over 6,000, left a naval base south of Tokyo this morning and would join exercises with South Korea from Sunday to the following Wednesday, US officials in Seoul said.
"This exercise is defensive in nature," US Forces Korea said in a statement. "While planned well before yesterday's unprovoked artillery attack, it demonstrates the strength of the ROK (South Korea)-US alliance and our commitment to regional stability through deterrence."
Reuters