Eyes refocusing on North Korea again, unfortunately

Tensions between the U.S. and North Korea, alas, seem to be ramping up again. After two weeks of relative calm that cooled “fire and fury” rhetoric (by the U.S.) and threats on Guam (by North Korea), missiles began flying again last week.

North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un, no doubt seeking attention, on Tuesday fired a ballistic missile over Japan, a close ally of the United States, that landed in the Pacific Ocean. In response, President Donald Trump said that “all options are on the table.”

And then there was Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday, warning that the U.S. and North Korea were “on the brink of a large-scale conflict.” Putin offered his views ahead of a summit of BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) nations in China this week.

All this brings hyper-attention to any military testing in our strategic state. That was the case late Tuesday when the destroyer USS John Paul Jones tracked, then used an interceptor missile to shoot down a target missile launched from Kauai’s Pacific Missile Range Facility. Success brings some measure of relief, however small.