SEOUL, South Korea, July 6 — North Korea declared today that it will continue to test-fire missiles, and vowed to resist with force if other nations tried to stop it, even as it acknowledged for the first time that it had launched seven missiles the day before.

Responding to international condemnation with characteristic defiance and vagueness, North Korea said that the launchings of the seven missiles, including the new intercontinental Taepodong 2, had been "routine military exercises" designed to raise the nation's "capacity for self-defense."

In a statement attributed to the North Korean foreign ministry and released on its official KCNA news agency, the North stated that it "will have no option but to take stronger physical actions of other forms, should any other country dare take issue with the exercises and put pressure upon it."

The North issued its warning as the American and Japanese diplomats tried with mixed success to gather international support for a United Nations Security Council resolution drafted by Japan, threatening sanctions if the North does not dismantle its nuclear program.

President Bush called the leaders of China and Russia today, seeking a unified response against the test firings. But China and Russia, each a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council with a veto over its actions, said they opposed taking punitive measures against North Korea.

At a White House appearance with Prime Minister Stephen Harper of Canada, Mr. Bush played down American differences with Moscow and Beijing.

"You know, diplomacy takes a while, particularly when you're dealing with a variety of partners, and so we're spending time diplomatically, making sure that voice is unified," the president said. "Let's send a common message: You won't be rewarded for ignoring the rest of the world."

Still, China and Russia gave little sign today that they were willing to consider sanctions. "We think the Security Council should make a necessary response, but the response should be helpful to maintain peace and stability on the Korean peninsula and should help diplomatic efforts," Jiang Yu, the spokeswoman for the Chinese foreign ministry, said in a news conference in Beijing.

Asked whether China — the North's biggest trading partner and aid donor — was considering cutting aid as a result of the tests, Ms. Jiang said, "At present we are not taking this aspect into consideration."

In Moscow, President Vladimir V. Putin said he was disappointed by the test firings, but added that North Korea was correct to say it had the legal right to conduct them.

North Korea said it was no longer bound by past moratoriums on the test firing of missiles because the United States and Japan had broken previous agreements.

In its statement, the North said Wednesday's missile launchings were successful. Experts said, however, that the Taepodong 2 failed just 42 seconds after takeoff.

North Korea's continued defiance appears intended to press the United States into direct talks with North Korea, analysts and politicians said. The country has demanded that Washington stop cracking down on banks that do business with North Korea, and has twice invited Christopher R. Hill, the assistant secretary of state for East Asia and the main negotiator with North Korea, to visit Pyongyang.For its part, Washington wants the stalled six-nation talks over the North's nuclear program, which include Russia, China, Japan, South Korea and Russia, to be revived instead, and it has refused to meet bilaterally with North Korea on the issue.

"These actions by North Korea are an act of defiance meant to remind the U.S. that to ignore it comes at a price," said Peter Beck, director of Northeast Asia at the International Crisis Group in Seoul.

"The tests may also have been intended to rally the North Korean people, to justify the hardships that they are undergoing," Mr. Beck said, adding that one of the biggest anti-American rallies in years was held in Pyongyang last week.

At a National Assembly hearing here, South Korea's Defense Minister, Yoon Kwang Ung, said that North Korea may fire additional missiles. Mr. Yoon said he was basing his assessment on "the traffic of equipment and personnel in and out of launch sites."

The South Korean media reported Wednesday that North Korea has three or four more mid-range missiles sitting on launch pads. According to experts, North Korea is believed to have about 200 mid-range and 600 short-range missiles in all.

The missile launchings have drawn contrasting responses from South Korea and Japan, America's two allies in the region.

Caught between its alliance with the United States and its policy of engaging the North, South Korea condemned the tests but appeared unlikely to impose more than a few very limited penalties against the North.

In the long term, few people here expect South Korea, which is the North's second largest trading partner and aid donor after China, to significantly alter its policy of engagement of the North. What both China and South Korea fear almost as much as military confrontation, experts say, is the sudden collapse of the North Korean regime and a subsequent flood of millions of refugees. At a National Assembly hearing, Lee Jong Seok, the Minister of Unification, said that cabinet-level meetings between the North and South will go ahead as scheduled next week, and that economic joint ventures will proceed. Military talks between the two Koreas are also scheduled for later this month.

By contrast, Japan has taken a very tough stance. Fukushiro Nukaga, the head of Japan's Defense Agency, told a parliamentary committee today that Japan will step up its efforts to establish a missile defense shield with the United States.

"We would like to cooperate with the United States and put our joint missile interception into shape as quickly as possible," Mr. Nukaga said.

John O'Neil reported from New York for this article, and Choe Sang-Hungfrom Seoul