Limited Options against Missile Intimidation

North Korea’s missile launch over the sky surprised Japan so much. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe had telephone conference with United States President Donald Trump unusually for two consecutive days. Japan is going to make every effort to urge United Nations put further pressure on North Korea. Nevertheless, Kim Jong-un boasts that he will continue the missile launch over Japan toward Pacific Ocean.

Government-owned Korean Central News Agency announced that the missile launch was made on the day of Japan’s annexation of Korea 107 years ago. “The bold operation that surprised cruel Japan settled accounts for accumulated grudge in our people’s heart,” commented KCNA. According to national media in North Korea, Kim issued an order that urged consecutive missile launches targeting Pacific Ocean for enhancing modernization of strategic weapons.

What Japan can do against provocative Kim regime is quite limited. Abe agreed with Trump on stricter sanction against North Korea. “Although I cannot say about the measures, we have completely agreed on the notion that launching missile over Japan was extremely dangerous and international society needed to put further pressure,” told Abe to the reporters. Trump argued that dialogue was not a solution and U.S. had been blackmailed in dialogue with them for twenty-five years in his twitter before the talk with Abe.

Receiving request from Japan and some others, U.N. Security Council adopted a presidential statement that condemned North Korea “for its outrageous actions and threats against another U.N. member state.” Japan considers proposing further sanctions against North Korea, including oil embargo which once was turned down by China and Russia in the last resolution against North Korea earlier this month. But, it is unlikely for oil embargo will reach an agreement in UNSC, while China and Russia requires U.S. to stop the joint military exercise with South Korea.

In the discussion of the Diet on Wednesday, the opposite party raised a doubt on a comment of Minister for Foreign Affairs, Taro Kono. Kono stated on the missile launch that North Korea had flinched from striking Guam. While Kono explained his comment as his analysis that the North refrained from doing that with high pressure from U.S., the opposite lawmaker warned Kono not sending wrong message to Kim regime.

Skepticism about early warning system against missile launch spreads in Japan. Although J-Alert system recommended the people in Japan to hide themselves into building or underground right after detecting the missile launch, they had only a few minutes to do that. A big question is what the people can do in ten minutes, the time of missile from North Korea arriving Japan.