IN A characteristic show of defiance, North Korea tested a short-range missile yesterday, a few hours after President Bush and President Roh of South Korea had demanded that the Stalinist state desist from provocative behaviour.

North Korea has carried out previous tests of the same weapon, a short-range anti-ship missile that was fired into the Sea of Japan during military exercises. But its timing was intended clearly as a snub to leaders meeting at the Asia- Pacific Economic Co-operation (Apec) forum in Bangkok.

Apec’s original economic goals have been overshadowed this year by discussion of terrorism and the problem of North Korea. Pyongyang resumed its frozen nuclear weapons programme at the end of last year after being included in Mr Bush’s “axis of evil”.

At a bilateral meeting on the margins of Apec, Mr Bush and Mr Roh issued a statement calling for a second round of six-nation talks on North Korea. The first round began in August.

“The two presidents urged North Korea to respond positively,” the statement read, “and to refrain from any action which would exacerbate the situation.”

As Mr Bush sat for breakfast with Mr Roh, the US President said: “We’re making good progress on peacefully solving the issue with North Korea.”

Yet within hours, the missile test had taken place. “We don’t see it as a positive sign,” an official of Junichiro Koizumi, the Japanese Prime Minister, said. The Apec leaders talked about free trade yesterday during a day of largely ceremonial events. Today they are expected to discuss security issues and to sign a declaration committing them to “dismantle, fully and without delay, transnational terrorist groups that threaten Apec economies”.

There have been muted objections to the way in which American concerns about terrorism have usurped the forum’s original goal of establishing free trade between its members by 2020, principally from Datuk Seri Dr Mahathir Mohamad, the Malaysian Prime Minister, Mr Bush offered a rare public rebuke to Dr Mahathir for a speech last week, in which he said that Jews “rule the world”.

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