Testing the Bounds of International Patience

"Downplaying North Korean ballistic missile tests will not help U.S. diplomacy with North Korea in any way, and would only encourage North Korea to further test the bounds of what the new administration can accept."

Markus Garlauskas, senior fellow, Atlantic Council; former U.S. National Intelligence Officer for North Korea

"Every day that passes without a deal that tries to reduce the risks posed by North Korea's nuclear and missile arsenal is a day that it gets bigger and badder."

Vipin Narang, nuclear affairs expert, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

"We are consulting with our allies and partners, and there will be responses. If they choose to escalate, we will respond accordingly."

"But I'm also prepared for some form of diplomacy, but it has to be conditioned upon the end result of denuclearization."

U.S. President Joe Biden

An electronics shop in Seoul displays television screens showing a news program reporting about North Korea's missiles with file images. North Korea fired what appeared to be two short-range ballistic missiles into the Sea of Japan, also known as the East Sea. (Chung Sung-Jun/Getty Images)

Like an errant juvenile delinquent who enjoys being regarded as a social deviant, North Korea's unpredictable leader Kim Jong Un enjoys what he interprets as celebrity notice by the global community through his provocative and dangerous displays of military prowess with the use of technologically advanced missiles and hinting that it would be simple enough for his technicians to mount a miniaturized nuclear warhead on any of his latest, more advanced, more powerful, longer-range ballistic missiles.

He hungers to be recognized as the leader of a powerful, influential country, piggy-backing his notoriety on to China's fearsome new and growing naval power and global influence. The alarm that Kim Jong Un causes his uneasy neighbours is second only to that of China's in claiming extraterritorial sites as China's exclusively, ranging from disputed land, sea and air borders to international areas not in dispute and held to be open to all.

After launching two ballistic missiles into the Sea of Japan at a time when Japan is launching its preliminaries to the Olympic Games this summer, it is clear that Kim is bored, awaiting notice from the new U.S. administration, and taking deliberate action to pry the attention of the new Biden administration away from cold-war-era-returned disputes with China and Russia to North Korea.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un is shown attending a ceremony to inaugurate the start of a construction project in Pyongyang, in a photo released Wednesday by the country's Korean Central News Agency (KCNA). (KCNA/Reuters)

The missiles' launch flaunted North Korea's impressive technological advances in weapons and rocketry as it continues to recklessly defy and provoke the patience of its neighbours and that of the United States involved in protecting the sovereign rights of those neighbours and which Pyongyang interprets as posing a military threat to itself. A threat that Kim feels can be countered with more advanced weaponry to persuade the United States to walk on eggs around North Korea.

According to analysts, the missile tests need not be conflated with the belief that talks on denuclearization are spinning in circles awaiting their final gasp of rejection. The North Korean arsenal, experts warn the U.S. administration, is a clear demonstration that Pyongyang is advancing its military arsenal's effectiveness. In itself a new threat to stability in the region. As greater scrutiny is being fixed on the North Korean arsenal Kim basks happily in what he construes as fear and admiration.

Several days earlier North Korea had fired a number of cruise missiles. President Biden responded sounding unperturbed claiming no message was intended other than a friendly greeting; and did not in the least bit portend future problems, but was merely, for North Korea, "business as usual". There can be little doubt that Kim is feeling his oats, having been approached by the U.S.to think deeply on issues of human rights, sanctions and denuclearization.

 

All of which the North Korean leader was pleased to rebuff. Along with shoving aside Biden administration overtures with a diplomatic mission to re-establish denuclearization talks putting an end to tactical mission provocations. 

"If the US continues with its thoughtless remarks without thinking of the consequences, it may be faced with something that is not good."

"It is a gangster-like logic that it is allowable for the US to ship the strategic nuclear assets into the Korean peninsula and launch ICBMs any time it wants but not allowable for the DPRK, its belligerent party, to conduct even a test of a tactical weapon."

"[North Korea has the] right to self-defense [and the Biden administration] took the wrong first step."

North Korean military official Ri Pyong Chol

Commuters watch a TV showing a file image of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and U.S. President Joe Biden during a news program at the Suseo Railway Station in Seoul, South Korea, Friday

AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon