Dealing with Pyongyang: Moon's approach may offer a better way forward

IT is good that Pyongyang's missile tests have been greeted with restraint. Everyone concerned took note of its demonstrated ability to master complex arms technology, but did not overreact. Missile systems with the velocity of more than 10 times the speed of sound may be becoming commonplace, yet Seoul and Washington have said that these missiles do not pose an immediate threat to their defences.

Unlike in 2017, when a series of North Korean missile tests drew a furious response from then President Donald Trump, this time President Joe Biden, and the United States generally, are preoccupied with events in Ukraine and Europe, the Covid-19 pandemic, and prospects of an Iran nuclear deal and of confrontation with China.

The significance of the tests, now in hiatus perhaps in deference to the ongoing Winter Olympics in Beijing, is a matter of conjecture. It has been argued that the successful tests are to set a celebratory tone for some key Kim dynasty anniversaries. But it is just as likely that, while North Korea has been failing in every other measure of human development, its arms-making abilities are clearly going well and serve to engender pride and loyalty among its people.