State Dept. repeats call for strong action, but says it takes time

WASHINGTON, April 8 (Yonhap) -- The United States Wednesday repeated its call for the U.N. Security Council to take strong action against North Korea's rocket launch, but predicted it will take time.

"What we're focused on right now in New York is to try to get a very strong
collective response to the North Korean launch," State Department spokesman
Robert Wood said. "This is a complicated issue. We're not going to rush things.
We want to make sure we deliver that appropriate strong response to the North's
action. And therefore, it's going to take time. And I can't put a time frame on
it."
Ambassadors of the U.S., China, Russia, France, Britain and Japan shelved plans
to meet Tuesday at the United Nations headquarters in New York due to differences
over whether to further sanction North Korea.
"There are some differences of opinion on this issue, and we are going to be
working in New York and, you know, amongst the various capitals, to try to
resolve some of these issues," Wood said. "But what we think is important is that
we all speak with one voice, that we're committed to sending a very strong
response to the North for having conducted that launch."
The U.S. views the rocket launch Sunday as a cover by the North to test its
ballistic missile capability.
China and Russia are sympathetic to North Korea's claim that the payload was a
satellite, which is not related to U.N. Resolution 1718, adopted in 2006 after
North Korea's ballistic missile launch and detonation of its first nuclear
device.
The Pentagon has said that the first stage of the rocket fell into waters of the
East Sea between Korea and Japan and the second and third stages together
splashed into waters off Hawaii without reaching space.
Although the satellite mission failed, the launch is seen as a demonstration of
an improving capability.
The rocket flew more than 3,200 km, double the range of 1,600 it achieved in
1998. A launch in 2006 was a dud.
In the face of strong opposition from China and Russia, veto powers on the
15-member council, the U.S. may have to compromise to seek stronger
implementation of the existing sanctions rather than adopting a new resolution,
some experts say.
Jack Pritchard, president of Korea Economic Institute, told a forum Tuesday that
he expects "no meaningful consequences, no penalties associated with this launch,
with the exception of some minor unilateral ones, most notably by Japan."
North Korea has threatened to scrap the six-party talks, stalled over how to
verify its past and current nuclear activity, if the rocket launch is brought to
the Security Council, and hinted at conducting a second nuclear test.
Sanctions under the resolution, which calls for an embargo of trade involving
weapons and their parts and luxury goods, have not been implemented effectively
as China greatly watered down the resolution to make its implementation
voluntary.
hdh@yna.