The Economist (September 2)
“After pausing his missile tests just long enough for America’s secretary of state, Rex Tillerson, to say that Mr Kim was showing ‘restraint’, and for Mr Trump himself to claim to have Mr Kim’s ‘respect’, North Korea’s dictator unleashed three short-range missiles into the Sea of Japan.” Then Mr Kim shot an intermediate-range missile over Hokkaido, leaving many on edge. Despite this menace, it remains “striking that in Japan and South Korea, many fear Mr Trump’s unpredictability even more than Mr Kim’s.”
Tags: Hokkaido, Kim, Missile tests, North Korea, Respect, Restraint, Sea of Japan, South Korea, Tillerson, Trump, U.S., Unpredictability
The Economist (November 30, 2013)
“Plenty of countries establish zones in which they require aircraft to identify themselves, but they tend not to be over other countries’ territory.” China’s unilateral declaration of an air defense identification zone (ADIZ) over Japanese territory has also heightened tension between the U.S. and China. “This face-off marks the most worrying strategic escalation between the two countries since 1996, when China’s then president, Jiang Zemin, ordered a number of exclusion zones for missile tests in the Taiwan Strait, leading America to send two aircraft-carriers there.”
Tags: ADIZ, Aircraft, Aircraft-carriers, China, Escalation, Exclusion zones, Face-off, Jiang Zemin, Missile tests, Taiwan Strait, Tension, Territory, U.S.