TOKYO — Diplomatic aftershocks from North Korea’s latest nuclear test are jangling nerves and changing policies across northeast Asia.
Alarmed by Monday’s test, South Korea announced Tuesday that it will join a U.S.-led effort to intercept suspicious ships at sea in an effort to stop countries such as North Korea from exporting missiles and weapons of mass destruction.
The North, a few hours later, fired two more short-range missiles into waters off its east coast, said Yonhap, the South Korean news agency. Tuesday night, one more missile was launched.
After its underground test Monday, North Korea had fired three missiles into the same waters.
“Our army and people are fully ready for battle . . . against any reckless U.S. attempt for a pre-emptive attack,” the North’s news agency said Tuesday.
In Washington, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton spoke to her Russian counterpart as part of an effort to seek a united response with “consequences” for North Korea. But U.S. officials also are still eager for North Korea to return to multilateral disarmament talks and are not ready to declare the multiyear effort to end North Korea’s nuclear program a failure.
“We feel the door does still remain open, that we’re ready to engage,” said State Department spokesman Ian Kelly. “And we hope that North Korea will make the right choice and choose to engage constructively.” He described the Obama administration’s effort now as trying to “bring international pressure to bear to get them to reverse their course.”
In Tokyo, a former defense minister and ruling party lawmaker said that Japan should consider developing the ability to conduct pre-emptive strikes against North Korea, even though Japan’s constitution prohibits it from taking offensive military action.
North Korea is believed to possess more than 200 midrange Nodong missiles that can strike nearly any part of Japan. The Japanese government has invested billions of dollars in a U.S.-made antimissile defense system.
In China, where condemnation of the North’s nuclear test was surprisingly swift and unambiguous, the state media Tuesday printed strong reprimands of North Korea from other countries.
U.S. officials are likely to press China to intervene.
Cross-border commerce and aid from China keep North Korea afloat economically. China is North Korea’s biggest source of food imports and fuel aid. Many of North Korea’s international connections are also routed through China or Chinese-controlled territories.
But dramatically shaving its largess, Beijing is believed to fear, could lead to nightmarish scenarios. One would see regime collapse and a breakdown of North Korea’s million-man army, with troops armed with AK-47s roaming the Chinese countryside as bandits.
