North Korea Warns Military Action if Rocket Retrieved

The United States, Japan and South Korea said the North's launch on Sunday was a disguised test of a long-range missile designed to carry warheads to U.S. territory and deserved punishment because it violated U.N. resolutions.

North Korea warned the U.N. Security Council on Tuesday it would take "strong steps" if the 15-nation body took any action in response to the launch. On Wednesday, the Communist-ruled country gathered its top party and military officials for a celebration of the launch broadcast on its state TV and monitored in Seoul.

The reclusive state has threatened to boycott six-nation nuclear disarmament talks and restart a plant that makes bomb-grade plutonium. It also warned on Wednesday of military action if anyone tried to retrieve debris from the rocket.

U.S. and South Korean military officials said the missile, known as the Taepodong-2, crashed into the Pacific Ocean and that no satellite was deployed during its 3,200 km (2,000 mile) flight over Japan, as Pyongyang has said.

The North's KCNA news agency quoted a military spokesman as saying Japan's attempt to find booster stages off its coasts was "an intolerable military provocative act of infringing upon its (North Korea's) sovereignty" and would prompt a response.

DEADLOCK AT U.N.

Diplomats in New York said negotiations on a Security Council response to the launch were deadlocked. The five permanent council members -- United States, Britain, France, China and Russia -- and Japan have failed to break the impasse in several meetings.

The United States and Japan would like a legally binding resolution expanding existing financial sanctions and an arms embargo against North Korea. Critics have said the sanctions lacked enforcement.

But U.N. diplomats say the Chinese would prefer that the council either do nothing or issue a non-binding statement to the media that stops far short of condemning the launch. Japan and the three Western powers have rejected that idea.

U.S. State Department spokesman Robert Wood told reporters on Wednesday "there are some differences of opinion" when asked why the Council had not yet responded to the launch.

"It's going to take time," he said about the negotiations in New York. "I can't put a timeframe on it."

Concerned about the stability of its unpredictable neighbor, Beijing has said any U.N. reaction must be "cautious and proportionate." China is sometimes viewed as North Korea's only major ally.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the threat of sanctions against North Korea was "counter-productive."

North Korea said it had the right to deploy a satellite, which it says is circling the globe playing revolutionary songs, as a part of a peaceful space program.