Any attempt by North Korea to gain concessions following its missile tests will be rejected by the United States and four other nations pressuring Pyongyang to abandon nuclear weapons, the White House said Thursday. “There has been speculation that the North Koreans are doing this in hopes of trying to extract concessions or to win incentive packages,” spokesman Tony Snow told reporters. “If they think there's going to be a reward for this kind of activity, they're wrong. It's a miscalculation. There is absolutely no [difference] between the negotiating partners on that.” Snow said China and the United States agree that diplomacy is the best way to try to resolve the issue, but the spokesman declined to disclose the details of President George W. Bush's conversation with Chinese President Hu Jintao earlier on Thursday. The White House spokesman said Bush's conversations with Hu and Russian President Vladimir Putin did not address details of possible sanctions the United States favors but China and Russia are reluctant to support. “Hu said he seeks peace and stability on the Korean peninsula, and expressed his opposition to any actions that threaten that peace and stability,” Snow said. In a statement about Bush's conversations with the leaders of South Korea and Japan, the U.S. president emphasized the need for a unified response to North Korea in the United Nations and elsewhere.
