North Korean medium-range missile launched in the Sea of ​​Japan

The news confirmed by Seoul and the United States that they believe is probably a ballistic rocket of the type Kn-15, relatively new but already used in the past by Pyongyang for other tests

BEIJING – This time the missile falls right between the legs of the most powerful men in the world. On the eve of the highly anticipated meeting between Donald Trump and Xi Jinping and the day after the promise of the US president to go ahead even on his ownif China does not help him to stop Pyongyang’s atomic bombing, North Korea’s latest provocation is coming: the launch of a new KN-15 rocket that is going to die in the Sea of ​​Japan. The confirmation reaches the highest levels of the US administration: “North Korea has launched another medium-long range missile,” says Secretary of State Rex Tillerson. “The United States has said enough about North Korea. We have no more comments to make.” Does that mean the words are over and the time has come to move on to the facts?

The missile was launched at 6.42 am in the Korean morning and the provocation started from a place called Sinpo, in the province of South Hamgyong. The rocket traveled about 60 kilometers before it died in the Sea of ​​Japan. The destination is not accidental: the Kim Jong-un regime aims its missiles at the American bases installed there. In short, the enemy is always Trump’s America. Which at this point finds itself in the need to give the world a concrete answer. “Strategic patience is over,” said Tillerson himself, who came around the governments of the world just to give a line of action against the regime. He was in Tokyo, he was in Seoul, he was of course also in Beijing where he prepared the Thursday and Friday summit in Mar-a-Lago in a 30-minute meeting with President Xi. He also said a now fateful phrase: “All the options on the table: even the military”. But faced with this hypothesis, the No of the Dragon was immediately triggered: “Nobody wants chaos on the doorstep” replied Prime Minister Li Keqiang, an escalation can lead to unpredictable consequences.

And even now, immediately after the new missile, the Chinese are still holding back: state agency Xinhua announces that North Korea has launched a new rocket, but “while South Korea and the United States conduct their annual exercises of war”. As if there was a cause and effect relationship: acting as a bank to Kim’s thesis that those of the allies would be real invasions. Beijing does not compromise on this: you stop the exercises, it has already proposed to Seoul and Washington, and we ask Pyongyang to stop the tests. But could it ever work? This is what the Global Times is asking in an editorial today: “Americans must dialogue with Pyongyang”. Too bad that on the other side of the Pacific they see it the other way.

The North Korean attack comes a few hours after the nth position of the US Congress: new sanctions not only against North Korea but also against Chinese companies that would continue to trade with the regime. The Republican majority congress would also like Trump to assign the terrorist state label to Pyongyang.

But the regime evidently goes its own way. The Marshal announced in a New Year’s speech that he was ready to launch a long-range missile: that is, capable of traveling 10 thousand kilometers and thus reaching the American territory. “It will not happen!” he tweeted with an exclamation point the then still-elected president Donald Trump. From that moment on, Kim threw a pair of missiles at his feet first while he was entertained in February with Shinzo Abe still in Mar-a-Lago: extremely dangerous precedent for the meeting with Xi. Then the four missiles arrived(five according to a US investigation, one unexploded) always launched towards the sea of ​​Japan on 6 March. It is not enough. At least two underground tests have developed a weapon that would mark “the new dawn” of the North Korean missile industry. The regime speaks of “satellite capacity”: but it is that same kind of capacity that would allow us to reach the USA. The test of these hours in short would be nothing compared.

And Pyongyang has already made it known that this “will be an unforgettable month”. July 15 is the birthday of the nation’s founder Kim Il Sung. On April 25th the 85th anniversary of the foundation of the Liberation Army. The regime has announced military parades that will dwarf the world. And the Mar-a-Lago summit has yet to begin.