The launch of increasingly long-range North Korea missiles this year, threatening the US territory of Guam in the Pacific Ocean, and then the firing of a missile over the Japanese island of Hokkaido this week, indicate Pyongyang’s willingness to test US and Japanese red lines.
It suggests a recognition that the US has no good options, but at the same time runs the risk, particularly with an unpredictable US president in post, of escalating tensions to the point of retaliation.