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North Korea nuclear crisis
Opinion

What next for US and South Korea, as China stands by nuclear-armed Kim Jong-un?

Shim Jae Hoon says with Beijing, and even Moscow, siding with Pyongyang, and with economic sanctions unlikely to dampen Kim’s nuclear ambitions, the US and Seoul will have to reassess their strategy in the peninsula

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People watch as coverage of a North Korean intercontinental ballistic missile test is displayed on a screen in a public square in Pyongyang, on July 29. Photo: AFP
Shim Jae Hoon
North Korea’s midnight test-launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile that could potentially reach California and beyond places Washington under threat. The test provoked US President Donald Trump to castigate China and pushed South Korea into a tighter embrace with the United States.
South Korea under new President Moon Jae-in had been holding back on deployment of the American THAAD (Terminal High Altitude Area Defence) anti-missile system and calling for talks with Pyongyang, but changed its stance within hours of the latest test, urging US help to strengthen its own missile capability. Such measures may be emotionally satisfying, but are no match for the North Korean challenge.

The missile launched on July 28, in engine power and precision navigational system, represents a dramatic improvement over the first ICBM tested more than three weeks earlier. South Korean analysts warn that the North will soon produce an improved model capable of hitting all parts of the US.

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Kim Jong-un is confident of already achieving that goal. “Our missiles can now hit anywhere in the US and at any time,” he boasted shortly after the launch. North Korean television clips showed him tensely watching the launch pad from an underground bunker, then bursting into delight once it had soared.

The launch was timed so that news would reach Washington in daylight hours. Even the launch site was chosen for maximum geopolitical impact, with the missile fired from a site in the Mupyongni munitions area near China. The implication: the US would risk hitting Chinese territory in the event it decides to attack the site.

China says it’s not to blame for crisis in North Korea

The possibility of war appeared to bother neither China nor Russia, two close neighbours that have recently expanded political and economic connections with the Pyongyang regime. The close ties are as much a reflection of deteriorating relations with Washington as their own geopolitical calculation.

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