North Korea can be more isolated after missiles-US

SEOUL, July 9 (Reuters) The United States is keen to pursue diplomacy with North Korea after its missile tests but would have no qualms in seeing Pyongyang further isolated, a top US diplomat said today.

''The North Koreans are isolating themselves. This missile aunch, if it was calculated at all, it was calculated badly,''US Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Chistopher Hill told a small group of reporters.

''If they want to negotiate, we are prepared to do so within the six-party process,'' he said referring to stalled talks among the two Koreas, China, Japan, Russia and the United States on ending yongyang's nuclear weapons programmes.

''If North Korea wants to isolate itself, we will do our best to oblige them,'' he added.

Hill is travelling in the region to meet the six-party players apart from Pyongyang to come up with a unified voice in response to North Korea firing seven missiles last Wednesday.

''This is North Korea's idea of how to intimidate its neighbours. The real question is are its neighbours really going to let them get away with this,'' Hill said.

He said apart from talks, some actions that could be taken included ensuring that export controls with North were in place and preventing leakage of technologies to the country.

After Pyongyang defied world opinion and test-fired missiles, Japan formally introduced a UN resolution, co-sponsored by the United States, Britain and France, to impose sanctions against its missile programme.

Hill said the launch, which included missiles that could hit all of South Korea and almost all of Japan, showed just how much of a problem this was for all of the six-party players.

China has proposed convening an informal six-way meeting in Shenyang, a northeastern city near the North Korean border, to seek a way out of the impasse.

A US official said some of the six-party members were considering holding the talks, even without Pyongyang.

''We need a six-party process regardless of whether we get all six parties to come to it,'' Hill said.

''If they are not interested, we will do our best to defend ourselves and secondly to keep them very isolated,'' he added.

REUTERS PKS RS1714