Photo/Illutration A Hwasong-18 intercontinental ballistic missile is launched from an undisclosed location in North Korea in this image released by North Korea’s Korean Central News Agency on July 13. (KCNA via Reuters)

The vicious cycle of meeting force with force against North Korea needs to end. Japan and other concerned countries should look for an opening to start dialogue with Pyongyang to prevent an unpredictable security crisis.

Referring to the intercontinental ballistic missile it fired on July 12, North Korea said the following day it involved a test launch of a Hwasong-18 projectile. North Korea’s provocative acts of firing ballistic missiles heighten tensions in the international community and represent a blatant violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions. They are totally unacceptable.

What is especially worrisome is that North Korea’s missile technology has made significant progress through repeated illegal test-firings.

North Korea’s state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA)
said the missile, launched on a lofted trajectory to a high altitude for safety, flew for some 75 minutes and a distance of 1,001 kilometers at a maximum altitude of 6,648 km before coming down in a targeted area in open waters off the North’s east coast.

KCNA asserted that all these figures were records. If launched on a standard trajectory, the missile could fly to any part of the mainland United States, including East Coast areas where Washington is located.

The Hwasong-18 is a new type of ICBM that uses solid fuel technology. Since solid fuel can be loaded in advance, the missile can be launched more quickly, making it harder to detect and target. The new missile has augmented North Korea’s military threat.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said his regime will take “a series of stronger military offensive” moves until the United States and South Korea abandon their “hostile policy” toward his country. The latest test launch of the ICBM and Kim’s remarks made it abundantly clear that Pyongyang intends to carry out direct threats of force.

July 27 marks the 70th anniversary of an armistice that brought about a cessation of hostilities in the Korean War. The latest ICBM launch was probably aimed partly to enhance national prestige prior to what Pyongyang casts as the anniversary of its victory over the United States.

Given that the U.N. Security Council has become dysfunctional due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, it is vital for Japan, the United States and South Korea to unite and share information in the face of the security threat posed by North Korea. From this point of view, it is crucial to secure the process of mending the relationship between Japan and South Korea.

But the undeniable fact is that only increasing military pressure on North Korea cannot stop the secluded regime from developing nuclear arms and missiles.

North Korea recently accused American reconnaissance aircraft of illegally intruding into its 200-nautical mile economic zone and threatened military action against U.S. aircraft operating off the country’s coast.

The U.S. military has dispatched a nuclear submarine to South Korea and, in what seems to be intended as a warning to China, sent strategic bombers to bases in Guam and Japan.

These actions of countering force with force are heightening tensions in the region and raising concerns about accidental and unpredictable armed clashes.

The countries concerned should take steps to bring North Korea to the table of dialogue. In response to the missile launch, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called for a resumption of dialogue that could lead to sustainable peace and the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.

On July 14, an international conferences was to kick off in Indonesia that will be attended by senior officials of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, Japan, the United States and South Korea, along with China and North Korea. The officials should take every opportunity to start constructive dialogue involving North Korea.

--The Asahi Shimbun, July 14