WASHINGTON (AP) – President Bush said Wednesday the failure of North Korea’s long-range missile test does not lessen the need to push the communist regime to give up its nuclear weapons program.

“One thing we have learned is that the rocket didn’t stay up for very long,” Bush said about the Taepodong-2 missile that failed 42 seconds after liftoff Tuesday. “It tumbled into the sea.”

“It doesn’t diminish my desire to solve this problem,” he said.

The administration’s message was that it wouldn’t allow the latest tensions to be seen as a Washington-Pyongyang problem, saying expressions of revulsion around the world dramatized widespread concern over North Korea’s intentions.

Bush said North Korea’s barrage of seven missile tests further isolated Pyongyang from the rest of the world. But he addressed the issue in a subdued manner without the harsh warnings that he had issued as recently as last week when he said that a missile launch would be unacceptable.

Following an Oval Office meeting with Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili, Bush also reiterated the U.S. desire to approach the problem through multilateral, not one-on-one talks with the reclusive communist nation.

“The North Korean government can join the community of nations and prove its lot by acting in concert with those of us who believe that she shouldn’t possess nuclear weapons and with those of us who believe that there is a positive way forward for the North Korean government and her people,” Bush said. “This is a choice they make.”

Bush said his top national security advisers and U.S. diplomats were working with other nations to try to coax North Korea back to the negotiating table, and that he too would be involved in talking with leaders working to get Pyongyong to abandon its nuclear weapons work.

“What these firings of the rockets has done is, they’ve isolated themselves further, and that’s sad for the people of North Korea,” Bush said.

“I am deeply concerned about the plight of the people of North Korea,” he said. “I would hope that the government would agree to verifiably abandon its weapons programs. I would hope that there would be a better opportunity for that government and for the people to move forward.”

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice had said earlier that global expressions of outrage demonstrated that “it is now not a matter of the United States and North Korea.”

“I can’t really judge the motivations of the North Korean regime, I wouldn’t begin to try,” Rice told reporters.

Said White House press secretary Tony Snow: “If it was the desire of Kim Jong Il to turn this into a two-party negotiation or standoff between the United States and North Korea, he blew it.

“Instead, what has happened is that the United States continues to work with its allies in the region,” Snow added.

Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill, in an interview with The Associated Press, said he would leave Wednesday night for Beijing and continue on from there for talks with officials in other countries involved in the negotiations, South Korea, Japan and Russia.

“We have a lot of support in a lot of places,” Hill said. He said he hopes unity will strengthened in talks he planned with the other participants.

While Hill was reluctant to say what the administration could do specifically, he said there would probably be some kind of resolution adopted in the Security Council. He declined to provide any details.

The United States and Japan asked the U.N. Security Council to hold an emergency session Wednesday, but Snow declined to disclose details about options the United States might be considering.

The test-firings of seven missiles _ including a long-range missile designed to reach U.S. soil _ began as America celebrated the Fourth of July. It raised the stakes in a nuclear crisis and pressured the U.S. and its partners to penalize Pyongyang. North Korea fired a seventh missile early Wednesday, after the initial round of world reaction.

Unlike during previous North Korean missile launches, the U.S. military now has a missile defense system. A couple of weeks ago, when the United States learned that the North Koreans were preparing to launch a Taepodong-2, U.S. officials said the U.S. missile defense system was “operational,” meaning it was ready for possible use in the event of a threatening North Korean missile launch. The officials said at the time that the administration was considering circumstances under which it might try to shoot down a North Korea missile.

Snow said the U.S. Northern Command, which is responsible for defending U.S. territory, has concluded with a high degree of confidence that North Korea’s test of the long-range Taepodong-2, believed capable of reaching American soil, failed within a minute after liftoff, and was not aborted.

“The failure of the Taepodong shows their missile talk is greater than their capability,” said Rep. Ike Skelton of Missouri, ranking Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee, who urged sustained diplomacy to defuse rising tensions.

The White House said that regardless of whether the series of launches occurred as planned, they demonstrate North Korea’s intent to intimidate other states by developing missiles of increasingly longer ranges. The administration urged North Korea to refrain from further provocative acts, including further ballistic missile launches.

The challenge for President Bush is to mobilize international support for penalizing the North Koreans. The United States and several of North Korea’s neighbors had issued stern warnings, saying a missile test would mean further isolation and sanctions.