Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was thousands of miles away from home, but Kim Jong Un’s message was loud and clear — think twice before getting too cozy with the new US President.
Abe, who is visiting the United States, and Japan were likely the main audience for North Korea’s Sunday missile launch.
“This is clearly directed at Japan,” said Carl Schuster, a professor at Hawaii Pacific University and former director of operations at the US Pacific Command’s Joint Intelligence Center.
Though South Korea worries about any developments in Pyongyang’s missile and nuclear capabilities, experts note that the rhetoric from the North has been much quieter and less hostile since the impeachment of President Park Geun-hye .
“For the last month or so they’ve been very careful not to do things that could be provocative in South Korea,” former US Ambassador Christopher Hill told CNN. “The usual betting is when North Korea provokes in this kind of way, the harder line, the right-of-center, tends to benefit in (South) Korea. ”
Abe called the test “absolutely intolerable,” while Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said it was “a clear provocation to Japan and the region. ”
South Korean officials say analysis suggests the missile is a modified intermediate-range ballistic missile (IRBM), a Musudan-level missile.
It flew 500 kilometers (310 miles) before crashing in the Sea of Japan, also known as the East Sea, sources said.
IRBMs typically have a range of 3,000 to 5,500 kilometers (1,864 to 3,417 miles) — much farther than needed to hit South Korea, but not long enough to hit the lower 48 states (though Guam is in its range.)
Abductions and conquerors
Japan and North Korea do not have active diplomatic relations, but there has been progress to normalize them in recent years.
One of the big holdups has been the cases of Japanese citizens who were abducted by North Korea in the 1970s and 1980s.
Pyongyang has admitted and apologized for the incidents, but it’s yet to provide an explanation that was acceptable to the Japanese — who say that diplomatic relations can’t be normalized until the abduction issue is resolved.
North Korea’s hostility toward Japan stems from its close relations to South Korea — which Japan calls its “most important neighbor” — and the United States.
But North Korea demonizes Japan domestically, using World War II-era characterizations focusing on the occupation of the Korean peninsula, according to Schuster.
Just a show?
There’s two aspects to every North Korean military test: the technical and the political.
