President Barack Obama today expressed impatience with North Korea's refusal to restart nuclear disarmament talks and said his administration was taking «a very hard look» at possible tougher approaches, AP reported. «We are not intending to continue a policy of rewarding provocation,» he said. While hardening the U.S. position, Obama did not cite any specific new measures and said he preferred following a diplomatic path. He made no reference to potential military action and a Pentagon official said no military moves were planned. But Obama's language suggested he sees little point in continuing a policy that has failed to rid North Korea of its nuclear weapons or halt development of missiles capable of striking Asian nation and potentially the U.S. «We are going to take a very hard look at how we move forward on these issues, and I don't think that there should be an assumption that we will simply continue down a path in which North Korea is constantly destabilizing the region and we just react in the same ways by, after they've done these things for a while, then we reward them,» he said.
