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North Korea test-fired a cruise missile on Monday in an apparent move by the North to press for nuclear negotiations with the United States, which has indicated it is in no hurry to talk to Pyongyang.
The United States wants to keep the nuclear standoff with North Korea from complicating its buildup for a potential war with Iraq. But the missile test and Pyongyang's belligerent daily rhetoric show that it will keep clamoring for US attention.
Seoul and Washington had anticipated the North's second missile test in two weeks since Pyongyang declared a maritime exclusion zone in the Sea of Japan from March 8 to 11.
The firing nonetheless caused South Korea's stock markets to dip, adding to fears voiced on Monday by a Seoul private-sector think-tank that a prolonged nuclear crisis and any protracted Iraq war would slash growth prospects this year for Asia's fourth-largest economy.
"The missile was fired around noon (0300 GMT) today into the Sea of Japan, and we judged it was the same type as was test-fired on February 24," a Seoul Defense Ministry spokesman said by telephone.
"We are still trying to find out exactly what type of missile it was," he added.
The anti-ship missile North Korea fired into the same waters two weeks earlier was thought to be a version of a Chinese Silkworm missile. Last week, a Pentagon official said Washington was "not overly concerned" about the expected repeat launch.
Japanese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hatsuhisa Takashima said: "We understand this was not a ballistic missile and therefore is not considered a direct threat to Japan."
US Wants Others on Board
Seoul's Korea Economic Research Institute (KERI) said 2003 growth could tumble to 1.4 percent compared with an estimated 6.2 percent in 2002 in the worst case if a possible Iraq war and a North Korean nuclear crisis persist.
"South Korea's economic growth rate is likely to fall to the one-percent level if geopolitical tensions including the North Korean nuclear issue and a war in Iraq drag on," said the privately funded KERI, describing that as a worst-case scenario.
Secretary of State Colin Powell said on Sunday the United States would eventually talk with North Korea about the country's nuclear ambitions, but reiterated the US view that others in Asia should help bring about an end to the standoff.
"I think eventually we will be talking to North Korea, but we're not going to simply fall into what I believe is a bad practice of saying the only way you can talk to us is directly when it affects other nations in the region," Powell said.
Powell told the CNN "Late Edition" television show a 1994 deal for North Korea to halt its nuclear program had been the product of direct talks with the North that Pyongyang later set aside in pursuit of other ways to develop nuclear weapons.
"This time, we want a better solution that involves all the countries in the region, and I hope North Korea understands that it is also in their interest to have all the nations in the region (be) a part of this dialogue, and within that broader dialogue we'll be talking to North Korea," he said.
US national security adviser Condoleezza Rice told ABC's "This Week" on Sunday: "We have to bring the weight of the international community in a multilateral fashion to deal with the North Korea threat."
China and Russia have resisted US entreaties to pressure North Korea to agree to multilateral talks, but have not ruled them out.
Provocations Mount
Pyongyang insists on bilateral talks with the United States and underscores that demand with moves that seem to parallel the US timetable for war with Iraq.
"The nuclear issue, a product of the US hostile policy toward the DPRK (North Korea), is an issue to be solved between the DPRK and the US," its Korean Central News Agency said.
"The only way of solving it is to conclude a non-aggression treaty with legal binding force through bilateral direct talks," the state-run agency said on Monday.
"Many countries are calling for the peaceful settlement of the nuclear issue on the Korean peninsula through direct talks, and even American politicians share the same view," it added.
On February 24, North Korea fired a short-range anti-ship cruise missile into the Sea of Japan, upstaging the inauguration of South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun.
Last week, Japanese media reported the North was close to restarting a nuclear fuel reprocessing plant at Yongbyon, north of Pyongyang, that could produce weapons-grade plutonium.
Earlier, US officials said North Korea had restarted a research reactor at Yongbyon, seen as the source of plutonium for the two atomic bombs the North is believed to possess.
On March 2, four North Korean MiG fighter jets buzzed a US spy plane in international airspace, after a similar plane violated South Korean airspace last month.
Roh, in office less than two weeks, has avoided criticizing North Korea's recent moves in a crisis that began when Washington said in October it had admitted to pursuing a covert program to enrich uranium for weapons.
South Korean newspapers have accused Roh -- a keen backer of reconciliation with North Korea -- of neglecting both the North's threats and Seoul's alliance with Washington, where there is talk of trimming the 37,000-strong US troop presence in the South.
"It is deplorable that President Roh appears to be intentionally toning down North Korea's nuclear threat, which seems to have no bounds, like his immediate predecessor Kim Dae-jung," said the Korea Times in an editorial on Monday.
US B-52 and B-1 bombers landed on the Pacific island of Guam last week as a deterrent to Pyongyang in the event of a US-led war against Iraq. North Korea said the deployment was preparation for a pre-emptive attack.
(China Daily March 10, 2003)
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