U.S.: North Korea Didn't 'Win' Despite Languid Response So Far to Rocket Launch

The failure so far of the U.N. Security Council or other international organization to respond to a weekend rocket launch by North Korea does not signal a "win" for the rogue nation, the State Department said Monday.

Spokesman Robert Wood said the international community is working closely on a coordinated response, and the severity of the violation only puts North Korea farther out on a limb by itself.

"This kind of action only further isolates the North and the fact that the Security Council is taking a shoe up demonstrates how important it is that we deal with this matter and the need for it to be dealt with and so I would reject any characterization that the North -- that this is some kind of a win for the North -- it's not," he said.

The United States has so far decided to rely on the U.N. Security Council to dole out an appropriate response to North Korea's launching of the rocket, which crossed over Japanese airspace.

Diplomats from the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council -- the U.S., Great Britain, France, Russia and China -- plus Japan met Monday afternoon to discuss future steps. No agreement was reached on a response to the missile launch, and the six ambassadors agreed to consult their capitals and meet again on Tuesday, probably in the afternoon.

Japan's U.N. ambassador, Yukio Takasu, said the six participants came to a broad understanding that the situation "is a very serious one, and the council requires (a) clear and strong and also quick response."

"As to what is (the) most appropriate format and content ... we have no convergence in view at this stage," Takasu said.

A U.S. official traveling with President Obama said the permanent member nations and Japan met privately late Sunday after the Security Council adjourned and are reconvening after diplomats from these nations run their discussion by their governments.

"We are making decent progress," the official said. "But this is going to take days. Nothing is going to be resolved today or tomorrow."

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Monday that she is lobbying key members of the Security Council to respond to the launch, which she called "a provocative act that has grave implications."

GOP lawmakers are urging the Obama administration to offer a stronger reaction or take unilateral action that they say would have much more impact.

"The Obama administration must take action to enforce concrete economic sanctions to further isolate North Korea, and should be neither seduced by pressure from Russia, nor intimidated by China's economic influence. This is a time for us to be strong and committed for the sake of this and future generations," said Rep. Trent Franks, R-Ariz., speaking on behalf of the House Missile Defense Caucus.

Traveling with the president from Ankara to Istanbul, Turkey, on Monday, White House officials had no appraisal of the pace or trajectory of talks at the United Nations, where the U.S. seeks unified condemnation of North Korea's failed ballistic missile launch.

Senior White House advisers referred all questions to U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice.

Sources told FOX News that Rice has been in contact with Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Monday as the United States tries to prod the Security Council to "send a strong, unified message," as one official put it, to the reclusive communist government.

"Nothing is off the table" in the talks, the official said. "We are more concerned about the elements of the outcome than the vehicle."

That means the U.S. is open to a new Security Council resolution; a tightening of the sanctions in place under Resolution 1718 -- the current vehicle punishing Pyongyang for 2006 missile tests; language re-highlighting 1718 and North Korea's violation of it; or even a simple statement of condemnation backed by the Security Council.

At the State Department, Wood said the U.S. is still letting the Security Council take the lead in formulating a response to Pyongyang's action, which U.S. officials uniformly have described as "provocative."

"The council needs to speak and speak clearly on this and you're going to work very hard to make sure that we do speak loudly but I'm not going to go beyond that right now because consultations are ongoing and what's important here is as I said to try to get an effective response," Wood told reporters.

"There is, as you know, a resolution, 1718, that deals with this question. ... Since we believe it's clearly of 1718, there needs to be a response coming from the Security Council. And that's what we're seeking right now," he said, adding that discussions on alternative options are being held, but he will not address them at this time.'

But Rep. Ed Royce, R-Calif., told FOX News that the tepid reaction so far is a result of China and Russia, who he called the "two impediments" to a U.N. response. He said the two nations could respond alongside the United States if it wanted, instead of leaving North Korea with the impression that the U.N. is unable to respond.

"'Won't' is different than 'can't,'" he said of their not concurring on a Security Council response.

Royce said that rather than relying on the U.N., the U.S. has many diplomatic weapons in its arsenal.

"We ought to close, frankly, all of the bank accounts, as the Treasury Department has done in the past, in China that are used, utilized by North Korea," Royce said.

If the U.S. embargoes the North, Royce said, "the defectors on their missile programs tell us that, at that point, they don't have the money to go forward with either their nuclear or their ICBM programs. ... We should bring down that regime's ability to get hard currencies. Eventually that will implode the regime. If (North Korean leader Kim Jung-Il) can't pay his generals, he can't stay in power."

Several lawmakers have also said they will introduce legislation to return North Korea to the list of states designated a terror state.

"The United States, and the entire global community, must take bold action against the North Korean regime," said Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan. "When the Senate reconvenes later this month, I will introduce legislation urging the return of North Korea to the terrorism list and addressing the North Korean regime's deplorable human rights abuses." 

But the U.S. decision to withhold unilateral action may be a solution in itself. Gen. James E. Cartwright, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said North Korea continues to make its own stability more precarious by launching these rockets.

"If they spark an arms race on the part of their neighbors because they feel threatened, then I would submit that their security has not been improved but has diminished. And I think that is an aspect of this that they ought to think very carefully about," he said, adding that buyers of North Korean products may want to think twice.

"On the idea of proliferation, would you buy from somebody that had failed three times in a row and never been successful?" Cartwright asked, receiving laughs in response.

Jim Walsh, an international security analyst, said that even if the launch was not scientifically a success -- since the rocket landed in the Pacific Ocean -- it is a win for North Korea in that it has split the members of the six-party talks from finding a unified response.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.