Mr. Gates declined to comment on what military steps the U.S. was considering, saying he wanted to givea high-level U.S. delegation traveling to Tokyo, Seoul, Beijing and Moscow this week time to come up with a multilateral consensus.
Reporters are capable of describing phenomena at the mile-high, abstract level, but if you can givea down-to- earth, real-life example, you increase your chances of being quoted in the story.
But Mr Lee said it would be "difficult to persuade the North regime to give up the nuclear path", and that North Korea's reference to a "high-level" test could indicate it planned to detonate more than one device.