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North Korean leader Kim Jong-un observes the launch of the Hwasong-12 IRBM from the airstrip of the Sunan International Airport in Pyongyang on the morning of Aug. 29. (Yonhap News)

North Korea launched another ballistic missile on Aug. 29. This one flew through the skies over Japan to reach the northern Pacific Ocean. It was equivalent to an intermediate range ballistic missile (IRBM), with a range of over 3,000 km when launched at a normal angle. The aim appeared to be to show that North Korea’s threat of an enveloping strike around Guam was more than a mere threat, and that it has the actual capability.

The missile launch by North Korea that day once again thwarted South Korea and the US’s hopes of easing into dialogue. In a telephone conversation afterwards, US President Donald Trump and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe agreed that now was “not the time for dialogue.” The UN Security Council unanimously condemned the launch as “outrageous” while South Korean President Moon Jae-in ordered his own “show of strong retaliation capabilities” against the North, leading to exercises where four Air Force F15K aircraft dropped eight MK84 bombs.

North Korea’s actions are typical of its behavior in the past. This is its trademark brand of brinksmanship: every time there seems to be a chance of dialogue, it raises the threat level to the maximum in an effort to put itself in a favorable position to steer the conversation. But it’s not clear what Pyongyang has to gain from this missile launch. It could end up the leaving what doves there are in the uniformly hardline Trump administration – the ones trying to hold back the “fire and fury” and somehow fixing things through dialogue – with even less of a voice than before, while giving the hardliners an even louder one.

In Japan, we could see growing calls for rearmament. It also makes things difficult for China, which has been acting as a kind of breakwater for the North amid the US pressure for sanctions. What North Korea wants is to have the economic sanctions lifted, to reach a peace agreement on the Korean Peninsula and achieve diplomatic relations with the US to ensure its own security and the welfare of its regime, and to become a member of the international community and lift its economy. Right now, it’s moving in the exact opposite direction. The Washington Post wrote that current leader Kim Jong-un “has now ordered the launch of 18 missiles this year alone, compared with the 16 missiles his father, Kim Jong Il, fired during 17 years in power.”

Now that North Korea has again made it clear that its focus for now is on advancing its nuclear and missile capabilities rather than negotiations, the situation on the Korean Peninsula is likely to be in for a deep chill. This will only make things that much harder on the people of North Korea. We urge Pyongyang to stop right now with its missile testing and again take a step toward dialogue.

President Moon said on Aug. 29 that “while there was another missile provocation from North Korea today, it’s times like these that demand a great shift in inter-Korean relations.” He continued to show his commitment to pushing things in the direction of dialogue. In that sense, it would seem to behoove his administration to be a bit more circumspect about the kind of deployments of US strategic assets that are currently being discussed.

Strategic assets – things like B1-B strategic bombers, B-52 long-range nuclear bombers, stealth fighters, Aegis-equipped destroyers, and nuclear-powered submarines – are attack weapons systems designed to strike targets, which have a major impact on the waging of war. The deployment of US strategic assets is an ultra-hardline move that could usher tensions on the peninsula to the brink of war. Even as North Korea continues to act in a disappointing way, we remind Seoul that war on the Korean Peninsula is unacceptable, and urge it not to give up its unflagging efforts to achieve dialogue.

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