Why America must stand by its allies against North Korea

KIM JONG UN has shown what he thinks of President Donald Trump’s promise in early August to respond with “fire and fury” to North Korea’s growing nuclear threat. 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. Most provocatively, on August 29th, an intermediate-range missile flew over Japan’s northern island of Hokkaido. Japanese under the missile’s path awoke to the sound of sirens, while the authorities urged them to seek shelter (see ). The missile crashed harmlessly into the Pacific 745 miles (1,200km) to the east, but Japan’s prime minister, Shinzo Abe, was right to call it an “unprecedented, serious and grave threat”.