Attempt of Missile Intimidation

Against heavy pressure from international community for containment, North Korea dared to launch a ballistic missile to Japan Sea in the next morning of national cerebration for 105^th birthday of Kim Il-sung, which was resulted in a failure. While United States Donald Trump administration repeatedly announced possibility of military option against North Korea, Kim Jong-un administration answered U.S. with determination for adversary. There is a firm belief in North Korea that military power is only the language useful for their survival.

According to military organization of U.S. and South Korea, North Korea launched one ballistic missile from the east coast of Korean Peninsula. The missile was exploded immediately in four or five seconds after the launching. An official of White House elaborated that the missile was mid-range ballistic missile and announced that U.S. had no intention to retaliate.

Trump administration has been put pressure on North Korea, arguing all the potions including military attack were on the table. It was urging China taking effective measure against the development of missile and nuclear weapons of North Korea with willingness of unilateral measure without China’s cooperation. However, North Korea showed its fundamental attitude of not giving in.

In the military parade of national father’s cerebration, Kim Jong-un administration displayed new type ballistic missiles. They included submarine-launched ballistic missile called Pukkuksong-1, or KN-11, revised SLBM for new ground-launched mid-range ballistic missile with solid fuel called Pukkuksong-2, or KN-15, and mid-range ballistic missile called Musudan, each of them were tested recently. Kim administration also disclosed long-range ballistic missile called KN-08, which had not been tested yet. It is supposed that North Korea was demonstrating their capability of reaching mainland of U.S.

It is still unclear whether the intimidation worked successfully. While White House was not surprised with the failure of missile launching, one of the staffs revealed that U.S. would have made different response, if it had been a nuclear test. Deterrence with possible military option does not look like working well, anyway. China’s decline of power to grip North Korea is in a serious moment. Although Chinese officials hope U.S. and North Korea to calm down their escalation policy, distrust of U.S. against China keeps on growing. Japanese government delivered an ordinary protest to North Korea that it would not tolerate that intimidation.