Missile crisis not 'WW III'
2006-07-05 19:09
Washington - The White House on Wednesday said it sought a "diplomatic resolution" to North Korea's wave of missile launches and warned against describing resulting tensions "in breathless World War III terms."
"There are attempts to try to describe this almost in breathless World War III terms.
This is not such a situation," said spokesperson Tony Snow.
Although the United States never takes the use of force off the table as a matter of principle, Washington's efforts to rally the international community to respond to the launches "make it very clear that the United States is interested in diplomatic resolution here," he said.
'Miscalculated'
Secretary of state Condoleezza Rice, also speaking in Washington on Wednesday, said North Korea might have "miscalculated" if it thought its missile testing "brinksmanship" would divide the international community.
"There has been a very strong response to their actions.
"So whatever the motivations, whatever they thought they were doing, they have gotten a strong reaction from the international community," Rice said.
She also stressed that stalled six-party talks on the North Korean crisis were the only forum for addressing the fallout from the missile tests, and that the issue was not simply a dispute between Washington and Pyongyang.