While we are confident that both Trump and Kim would be delighted to just keep trading insults at each other for the indefinite future, even as North Korea launches the occasional ballistic missile, that time may be over. Speaking at the UN, the US Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley said on Tuesday that North Korea’s launch of a missile over Japan was “absolutely unacceptable and irresponsible” and that the Security Council now needed to take serious action.
“No country should have missiles flying over them like those 130 million people in Japan. It’s unacceptable,” Haley told reporters. North Korea has “violated every single U.N. Security Council resolution that we’ve had and so I think something serious has to happen,” she added, quoted by Reuters.
Saying “enough is enough,” Haley said she hoped China and Russia would continue to work with the rest of the U.N. Security Council when it meets on Tuesday afternoon to discuss what more can be done about North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs.
Of course, even if Russia and China do side with the rest of the Security Council as they did during the recent sanctions vote, it is unclear just what additional economic punishments and "harsh language" the UN can impose on the Kim regime to prevent him from doing what he has been merrily doing so far, oblivious of the consequences.