Stern responses urged for N.K. missile provocation

North Korea fired a ballistic missile into the East Sea from a site in Banghyon, North Pyongan Province on Sunday morning. The South Korean military said that the missile reached an altitude of up to 550 kilometers and flew more than 500 kilometers, and speculated that the missile was a Rodong-class ballistic missile. Even though North Koran leader Kim Jong Un claimed in his New Year’s message that “The preparation to test-fire an intercontinental ballistic missile has entered the final phase,” the latest test suggests that Pyongyang’ missile has not advanced to the level of an ICBM that poses real threat to the U.S. mainland. Given that the North could have fired a new kind of missile, it is premature to make any conclusion. A ballistic missile at this level of technology is a clear violation of the U.N. sanctions against North Korea, and poses a serious security threat to South Korea, which is situated within the missile’s range.

Kim Jong Un took the provocative action of its first missile launch following U.S. President Donald Trump’s inauguration, immediately after Trump and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe urged Pyongyang to give up nuclear weapons and missiles and refrain from additional provocations in their summit in Washington on Friday. Pyongyang apparently is trying to gauge response by President Trump, who is pushing ahead with hardline policy against the North. Sunday marks the fourth anniversary of the North’s third nuclear test. After the Washington-Tokyo summit, President Trump stressed that “The priority of North Korean nuclear weapons and missile threats are very very high,” Kim effectively challenged the new U.S. leader with a low-intensity provocation. As such, depending on how Trump will respond, political situation on the Korean Peninsula could face fluctuations ahead.

With discussions about preemptive strike against North Korea openly held in the Trump administration, U.S. nuclear aircraft carriers, stealth fighters, and strategic bombers are gathering around the Korean Peninsula ahead of the South Korea-U.S. joint Key Resolve and Foal Eagle military drills scheduled in March. The power of force is strong enough to completely and instantly destroy the Kim Jong Un regime in the event of armed conflict. Unless Seoul and Washington make stern resolve to go into full-blown warfare, however, Kim will consider the drills merely as annual joint gatherings to build up teamwork. We wonder whether South Korea and the U.S. are holding discussions in real-time about how to respond to the North’s provocation just as U.S. Defense Secretary James Mattis proposed to his South Korean counterpart Han Min-koo that “Let us hold communications 24 hours, 365 days” during his recent visit to Seoul.

The South Korean government held a standing committee meeting of the National Security Council chaired by National Security Office chief Kim Kwan-jin at 9:30 a.m. on Sunday, about 1 hour and 35 minutes after Pyongyang’s missile launch. Seoul said it promptly reacted to the provocation to prevent security loopholes despite the ongoing impeachment bid, but if the North’s missile fell into the heart of Seoul, it would already have caused massive damage. Since the U.S. and Japanese leaders stressed cooperation among Seoul, Washington and Tokyo to counter the North’s nuclear threat, Acting President Hwang Kyo-ahn and the South Korean national security and diplomacy team should closely work on ways to retaliate the North’s provocation through act rather than words. The only measure that can crush the ambition of Kim Jong Un who is making "the gamble of unconditional provocations” is to levy massive economic, diplomatic and military pain, which Pyongyang cannot afford to endure, rather than giving verbal warnings.