(AP) - South Korea said Friday that it had turned down a North Korean proposal to hold military talks this week, citing tension over the North's test-firing of seven missiles.North Korea said its missile barrage was not an attack on anyone.
Uncertainty surrounded North Korea's next step. South Korea's defense agency was quoted by a news report as saying that an additional long-range Taepodong-2 missile could be at the North's launch site, but it didn't expect a launch to come anytime soon, reports Trend.
Japan, meanwhile, turned up the pressure on the impoverished communist state, announcing it would not provide food aid to the North and was considering restricting agricultural and fisheries trade between the two sides. North Korea is dependent on international food shipments.
South Korea's rejection of the North Korean offer of military talks came despite South Korea's vow to press ahead with political and economic engagement with its neighbor as a way to solve the long-running conflict on the divided Korean Peninsula.
North Korea made the proposal on Monday, two days before its military fired a salvo of missiles into the sea in a maneuver that caused global alarm. The North suggested that the meeting be held Friday at the inter-Korean border village of Panmunjom, but the South turned it down.
"Our side judged that it is not an appropriate time," the South Korean Defense Ministry said in a statement. "We notified the North that we would propose a date at an appropriate time later."
The working-level meeting would be aimed at setting up talks between generals of the two militaries aimed at reducing tension along the world's most heavily fortified border. The two sides held the last high-level military talks in May, but failed to produce any agreement because of a dispute over the North's demand that the western sea border be redrawn.
South Korea's Yonhap news agency on Friday quoted Choe Myong Nam, councilor at the North's mission to the U.N. in Geneva, as saying that the launches were successful and could be continued, echoing an earlier statement by North Korea's Foreign Ministry.
"It's an unfair logic to say that somebody can do something and others cannot. The same logic applies to nuclear possession," Choe said. The missile launches are "not intended to strike anyone and it's the North position that missile launches could be continued," he said.
It was unclear what the North would do next. Northern officials have threatened to continue the tests, but evidence from intelligence is not conclusive, Defense Minister Yoon Kwang-ung said.
Yoon was quoted by Yonhap news agency as saying there was apparently a technical problem with the North's Taepodong missiles and that another launch would have to wait while the glitch is resolved. He added that further tests were also unlikely to be imminent.
The long-range Taepodong is designed to reach U.S. soil, according to U.S. officials.
In addition, Yoon said that North Korea had one boat off its coast observing the missile launches when it fired the seven missiles on Wednesday, but "the boat is now believed to have withdrawn from the area" further suggestion that more launches might be unlikely.
Nonetheless, South Korea ordered two of its airlines to avoid a flight route near the path of the missiles until July 11.
The United States kept up its diplomatic drive to forge a common strategy among the main players in the region. On Thursday, it said the world must speak with one voice in pressing North Korea to abandon its nuclear weapons and return to multinational talks.
American and Chinese senior negotiators on North Korea conferred Friday on the missile tests, and U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill and Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Wu Dawei met in Beijing only hours after their presidents spoke by phone.
China, which provides oil and other economic assistance to North Korea, is seen as critical to diplomatic efforts with Pyongyang. The U.S. has urged Beijing to exert leverage on North Korea, though so far Chinese efforts have been largely limited to diplomatic appeals.
In Washington, President Bush expressed support for a draft U.N. Security Council resolution, offered by Japan, to sanction North Korea for the launches. China and Russia have shown little interest in sanctions, saying diplomacy remains the only way to resolve the dispute.
"I think we've got to plan for the worst and hope for the best," Bush said. "And planning for the worst means to make sure that we continue to work with friends and allies, as well as those who've agreed to be a part of the six-party talks, to continue to send a unified message."
South Korea has taken a markedly softer approach with Pyongyang, shelving earlier criticism of the missiles and insisting on maintaining ties with the North developed in recent years.
Unification Minister Lee Jong-seok told the National Assembly in a hearing that Cabinet-level meetings between the two Koreas scheduled for next week should go ahead, and that Seoul would not scuttle cross-border projects with North Korea because of the missile tests.