Page 223 - Trilateral Korea Japan U.S. Cooperation

Introduction

While the international community remains fixated on
Russia’s war against Ukraine and the ongoing struggle
between Israel and Hamas, little attention is being paid to
the real and growing security challenges in Asia. Even when
attention is focused in Asia’s direction, it appears to center on
China’s assertive behavior in the South China Sea or vis-à-vis
Taiwan, seemingly giving North Korea a free pass to threaten
its neighbors, while denying basic human rights to its own
citizens.

Make no mistake, Pyongyang is clearly exercising this free
pass. North Korea has been more aggressive and provocative,
in both words and deeds, in the past few years than it has been
in decades. As our other authors have clearly documented,
it has continued testing a wide variety of short-, medium-,
and long-range or intercontinental ballistic missiles, some
deemed capable of (or at least designed for) carrying nuclear
weapons, while politically rejecting peaceful unification and
most recently branding South Korea as an enemy state. It has
rejected offers of dialogue “without preconditions” from both
South Korea and the United States and dismissed overtures
from Japan as well.

Preparations also seem underway that would allow the
resumption of nuclear testing, if and when North Korea’s
leader Kim Jong-Un decides to do so. He has already
embedded the country’s declared “nuclear weapons state”
status in the North’s constitution and has threatened to use

Chapter Fourteen : Standing Firm Against North Korea-China Challenges 223