North Korea’s ICBM launch demands a global response

North Korea’s chilling Fourth of July surprise this week has heated up the war of words between the dictatorial Asian regime and the United States.

That holiday surprise came via the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea’s successful test launching Tuesday of an intercontinental ballistic missile, one that Asian and American military analysts alike agree had potential to strike Alaska.

For his part, an exuberant Kim Jong Un, North Korea’s quirky and despotic president, hailed the fiery launching as a “gift for the American bastards,” adding that his nation plans to “frequently send big and small gift packages to the Yankees.”

For his part, President Donald J. Trump told reporters Thursday during his brief trip to Poland, “I have some pretty severe things that we’re thinking about” to respond to the North’s provocation.

That followed our Commander-in-tweets insult directed at Kim posted in the immediate aftermath of the launch: “Does this guy have anything better to do with his life?”

The jesting nature of that tweet belies the seriousness and severity of the heightened tensions. U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson called the launch a “new escalation of the threat’’ to the U.S. and the world.

Nikki Haley, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, said the long-range missile test “showed that North Korea does not want to be part of a peaceful world. They have cast a dark shadow of conflict on all nations that strive for peace.” She added that the U.S. is prepared if necessary to use military might to rein in Kim.

Amid the derisive tweets, taunts, mocks, insults and threats, however, this much is clear: There is no easy solution to defusing the ever-escalating North Korean nuclear missile crisis. By now, it should also be equally clear that any viable option to do so must lie in a united global response.

The military option, however, is one response that must be avoided at all costs.

That would likely only embolden North Korea toward expediting its deluded dream of annihilating its enemies. And no one doubts Kim’s forces could quite capably target the 50 million enemy residents of South Korea or the 80,000 enemy Americans stationed in South Korea and nearby Japan.

Another option embraced by the administration of President Barack Obama has outlived its usefulness. That policy of “strategic patience” rested on a foundation that the U.S. could wait for China to begin exerting on its own stronger influence through sanctions and other policies to to quash Kim’s nuclear ambitions against the U.S. and others.

Unfortunately, it has become increasingly clear that China, which provides impoverished North Koreans with many of their essential survival needs, is not willing to play that game. As Trump tweeted Wednesday, “Trade between China and North Korea grew almost 40% in the first quarter. So much for China working with us – but we had to give it a try!”

MAJOR PLAYERS MUST INVEST IN PEACE

Although American patience may have worn thin, the U.S. and other peace-seeking nations cannot give up on trying to construct a lasting strategy for long-term stability in the region. Clearly any diplomatic plan to stabilize the Korean Peninsula region must involve global involvement, and China, as well as the U.S., South Korea and Japan, must be deeply invested in that response.

Part of that response should include a strong partnership within the U.N. Security Council to denounce and take action. Under the leadership of Haley, that process has begun with emergency meetings on North Korea and discussions of punitive actions, including much stronger sanctions against the rogue nation.

But as former Secretary of Defense William Perry told NPR on Wednesday, sanctions alone likely will not solve the crisis.

“ We’ve demonstrated for many years now that sanctions by themselves are not sufficient. We have to have a more – a bolder program, a more imaginative program than just putting more sanctions on.”

President Trump himself can contribute to the buildup of a strong anti-Kim coalition. For example, he can use meetings with leaders of key international players to press for cooperation. Today, he could urge Russian President Vladimir Putin at the G20 Summit in Hamburg, Germany, to boldly assert his nation’s opposition to North Korea’s nuclear antics.

Of course, the path to resolving the North Korean nuclear imbroglio remains muddied and unclear. But given the unacceptable consequences of armed – and potentially nuclear – conflict, the stakes are too high for the United States and the peace-loving world community not to explore and exhaust any and all diplomatic options as fully and as aggressively as possible.