As the war between Russia and Ukraine rages on, one country may complicate the situation.  North Korea continues to acquire better and better weapons; we must pray that they come to nothing and fail.

From CBS News. North Korea test-fired possibly its biggest intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) toward the sea  Thursday in what would be its first such test since 2017, according to its neighbors’ militaries, raising the ante in a pressure campaign aimed at forcing the United States and other rivals to accept it as a nuclear power and remove crippling sanctions….

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South Korea’s military responded with live-fire drills of its own missiles launched from land vehicles, aircraft and a ship, underscoring a revival of tensions as nuclear negotiations remain frozen. It said it confirmed readiness to execute precision strikes against North Korea’s missile launch points as well as command and support facilities.

South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said the North’s ICBM fired from the Sunan area near capital, Pyongyang, traveled 670 miles and reached a maximum altitude of over 3,850 miles. The missile was apparently fired on high angle to avoid reaching the territorial waters of Japan.

Japan’s Deputy Defense Minister Makoto Oniki said the flight details suggested a new type of ICBM.

“Even when the international community is responding to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, North Korea has been forcing its missile launches, which could one-sidedly escalate provocations,” Oniki said….

South Korean President Moon Jae-in during an emergency National Security Council meeting criticized North Korean leader Kim Jong Un for breaking a self-imposed moratorium on ICBM tests and posing a “serious threat” to the region and the broader international community.

The United States strongly condemns the North’s launch, said White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki, calling it a “brazen violation” of U.N. Security Council resolutions that risks destabilizing the region’s security.

“The door has not closed on diplomacy, but Pyongyang must immediately cease its destabilizing actions. The United States will take all necessary measures to ensure the security of the American homeland and Republic of Korea and Japanese allies,” she said, referring to South Korea’s formal name.

Biden’s approach questioned

The Biden administration’s passive handling of North Korea so far, while it focuses on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and an intensifying rivalry with China, is allowing more room for the North to dial up its testing activity, some experts say. The administration’s actions on North Korea have so far been limited to largely symbolic sanctions imposed over its recent tests and offers of open-ended talks that were quickly turned down by Pyongyang’s leadership.

There are views in Seoul that Washington is slipping back to the Obama administration’s “strategic patience” policy of ignoring North Korea until it demonstrates seriousness about denuclearization, although that approach was criticized for neglecting a gathering nuclear threat….

The launch may possibly come around a major political anniversary in April, the birthday of state founder Kim Il Sung, the late grandfather of current leader Kim Jong Un.

The North’s previous ICBMs demonstrated potential range to reach the American mainland during three flight tests in 2017. Its development of the larger Hwasong-17, which was first revealed in a military parade in October 2020, possibly indicates an aim to arm it with multiple warheads to overwhelm missile defenses, experts say.

The North last flight-tested an ICBM in November 2017, when the Hwasong-15 flew about 600 miles for about 50 minutes at a maximum altitude of 2,400 miles. It wasn’t immediately clear whether the missile from the latest test was the Hwasong-17.

Denuclearization talks with the U.S. have been stalled since 2019, when the Americans rejected North Korea’s demand for a major release of crippling U.S.-led sanctions in exchange for a partial surrender of its nuclear capabilities….

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(Excerpt from CBS News. Photo Credit: Canva)