BBC Radio: What Now After North Korea’s “Intercontinental” Missile Test?

North Korea has raised the political and military stakes with its latest missile test on Monday. Pyongyang has declared that this was the first launch of an intercontinental ballistic missiles, an assertion backed by the US Pentagon. Analysts said that if the missile was fired on a standard trajectory, it could reach Alaska.

How should powers in the region and beyond react to the escalation? Donald Trump apparently passed the buck to China, via a Twitter message, as the US seemed lost over its diplomatic and military options.

See TrumpWatch, Day 165: Trump to China “Put a Heavy Move on North Korea” — But What Does That Mean?

I spoke with BBC Coventry and BBC WM on Tuesday about the developments.

Listen to Discussion with BBC Coventry

This raises the stakes regionally rather than a direct confrontation between North Korea and the US…This changes the dynamics of the diplomatic chess match. Each time North Korea launches a missile and each time you get a provocative response, say from a Donald Trump, it makes it harder to see a negotiated way out of this.

Listen to Discussion with BBC WM

You’re not going to be able to overthrow the regime of North Korea, as terrible as it might be, as horrible for its people as it might be. They’re going to be there, you have to accept that.

So you have to find some way that everybody says, “Look, we’re not going to pull the trigger on any of these weapons.”