It looks like the Kim regime wants normalize firing missiles over Japan and use the joint US-ROK military exercises as excuses to do so:

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un signaled more missile launches into the Pacific Ocean after a successful test of a Hwasong-12 intermediate-range ballistic missile (IRBM) that flew over Japan, Tuesday, according to Pyongyang’s state media, Wednesday.

The Hwasong-12 flew about 2,700 kilometers over Japan before landing in the Pacific Ocean. This was the first time that North Korea has fired a ballistic missile over Japan.

“The missile firing, which closely resembled actual warfare, is the first step of our military operations in the Pacific and a significant prelude to check the U.S. territory of Guam,” the North’s Korea Central News Agency (KCNA) quoted Kim as saying.

“We need to carry out more ballistic missile tests toward the Pacific, so that we can develop strategic forces more practically.”

His comments showed the North could test-fire missiles toward not only areas around the Korean Peninsula but also those near Japan, Guam and other Pacific regions.

The KCNA said the country chose Aug. 29 for the missile launch to intimidate Japan on the occasion of the 107th anniversary of Japan’s annexation of Korea in 1910.

“We carried out a bold operation, which flabbergasted the brutal Japanese islanders, on bloody Aug. 29, the day when the humiliating treaty of annexation was announced 107 year ago,” the KCNA said.  [Korea Times]

You can read more at the link, but it is clear the Kim regime feels there will be no repercussions from firing missiles over Japan and thus why this may become the new normal.  I guess we will see if the Kim regime is right about this assumption.

This exercise was unrelated to the recent North Korean missile launch over Japan, but I think it is pretty significant that the Japanese are willing to demonstrate that they can deploy their own Patriot batteries defend a US airbase:

Japan’s air force demonstrated a Patriot missile-defense system at Yokota in western Tokyo Tuesday, just hours after a North Korean missile flew over Hokkaido.

The Japan Air Self-Defense Force is deploying Patriot Advanced Capability-3 surface-to-air systems to several U.S. bases in Japan to test their ability to quickly respond to Pyongyang’s missile threats, a U.S. Forces Japan statement said.

A convoy of trucks carrying PAC-3 components arrived at Yokota, headquarters of USFJ and the 5th Air Force, Tuesday morning. The planned deployment happened soon after North Korea test-fired a missile over Japanese territory, prompting alerts in a dozen prefectures before falling into the ocean east of Hokkaido. It was the latest in a string of missile tests this year, including one that appeared to simulate a nuclear attack on U.S. forces in Japan.  [Stars & Stripes]

You can read more at the link.

Japan's foreign minister says what others may be thinking: easier for NK to get away with a missile fired over Japan than towards Guam. pic.twitter.com/iAPP3BPWer

— Alastair Gale (@AlastairGale) August 29, 2017

This photo provided by South Korea’s Navy First Fleet shows soldiers deploying mobile guided missile launchers in Gangwon Province’s Donghae on the east coast on Aug. 25, 2017, as part of the annual Ulchi Freedom Guardian war games. (Yonhap) (

This couple will spend three years and six months in jail for what they did to this homeless girl:

A couple in their 20s has been jailed for forcing a homeless teenage girl into prostitution and sadistically punishing her when she refused.

Daegu District Court on Monday sentenced the couple to three years and six months jail on charges of forcing prostitution, intimidation and inflicting critical injuries.

The judges said the crime was “immoral and extremely grievous in its sadism,” causing the victim “indelible trauma.”

The court heard that the man, 25, and the woman, 21, met the girl in January after she ran away from home. They abused the girl for 16 days, forced her into prostitution 50 times and took the money she earned.

When the victim refused to offer sex services, the couple burned her with a cigarette and forced her to eat dog food mixed with their saliva.  [Korea Times]

You can read more at the link.

For North Korea to fully test its intermediate range ballistic missile (IRBM) it was going to have to fire over Japan and the ongoing UFG exercise gave them the cover to do so:

Seoul’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said the missile traveled around 2,700 kilometers (1,677 miles) and reached a maximum height of 550 kilometers (341 miles) as it flew over the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido. The launch appeared to be the first of a North Korean missile to cross over Japan, though some rockets it said were used to put satellites into space have done so. It also appeared to be the North’s longest-ever missile test, but South Korean officials couldn’t immediately confirm.  [Associated Press]

The North Koreans have now proven that their IRBM works on a nominal trajectory which also proves they have the capability to strike Guam.  However, what I haven’t heard yet in any news articles is whether the reentry vehicle successfully reentered the atmosphere?  We will probably hear more about this in the coming days.

Here is what the Japanese government had to say after the launch:

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told reporters that the government had a grasp of the situation immediately after the launch. He called it “an unprecedented, grave and serious threat” that damages the peace and security of the region, adding that Tokyo had lodged a firm protest with Pyongyang.

However, Foreign Minister Taro Kono told reporters that the North may have “held back” in its latest launch by not targeting the area around the U.S. territory of Guam. In an earlier threat, the North said it had formulated a plan to send missiles into the waters near the island, home to key U.S. military bases.

Kono also told reporters the government had requested that a United Nations Security Council meeting be convened over the launch. That meeting was expected later Tuesday.  [Japan Times]

Where is Hans Blix when you need him?:

Here was the ROK reaction to the missile launch:

In Seoul, South Korean President Moon Jae-in ordered his country’s military Tuesday to demonstrate its “overwhelming” capabilities, should the North decide to attack, the presidential Blue House was quoted as saying by the South’s Yonhap news agency.

The show of force involved the dropping of eight Mark 84, or MK84, multipurpose bombs by four F-15K fighter jets at a shooting range near the inter-Korean border in Taebaek, Yoon Young-chan, Moon’s chief press secretary, said.

Seoul also made public rare footage of its testing of new ballistic missiles. The state-run Agency for Defense Development’s 86-second video clip showed the test-firing of a 500-km-range ballistic missile with “improved warhead power” and that of another one with a range of 800 km. The footage showed the missile accurately hitting mock targets on the ground and in the water. The tests were conducted last week and were the last ones before the deployment of the missiles, it added.  [Japan Times]

Quite possibly the most remarkable development from this launch is the measured response that President Trump has taken:

U.S. President Donald Trump slammed North Korea Tuesday after the communist regime fired another missile in defiance of international warnings, saying “all options are on the table.”

Earlier Tuesday, North Korea fired a missile that flew over Japanese territory.

“The world has received North Korea’s latest message loud and clear: this regime has signaled its contempt for its neighbors, for all members of the United Nations, and for minimum standards of acceptable international behavior,” Trump said in a statement.

“Threatening and destabilizing actions only increase the North Korean regime’s isolation in the region and among all nations of the world. All options are on the table,” he added.  [Yonhap]

Considering how measured President Trump has been in his public comments; it leads me to believe there must be something going on diplomatically behind the scenes.  My guess is that sometime after the UFG exercise we will find out what the diplomatic approach is.

It has long been suspected that the Chinese government kept close ties with Kim Jong-nam as sort of a Plan B if needed in North Korea.  According to the below article Kim Jong-nam made sure a Chinese Plan B could never happen after he got word of a possible coup:

When Kim Jong Nam was killed with a deadly nerve agent in an airport in Malaysia in February, it may have thwarted an attempt backed by the Chinese government to overthrow his half-brother, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

Citing three sources, Nikkei Asian Review reported on Monday that top government officials in China and North Korea in 2012 seriously considered a plot to remove Kim Jong Un.

Nikkei reports that Hu Jintao, China’s president at the time, met with Kim Jong Un’s uncle, who floated the idea of replacing him with his half-brother, a politically unmotivated gambler.

But because of a recent scandal involving the death of the son of one of Hu’s advisers, the Chinese leader did not immediately act.

According to the report, a top adviser to Jiang Zemin, Hu’s predecessor and rival, caught wind of the plot and informed Kim Jong Un, who in 2013 had his uncle executed and purged several officials with ties to China.  [American Military News]

You can read more at the link.

Why South Korea Is the Home of Counterfeit Culture | News & Analysis | BoF https://t.co/INgu8zq8sc

— KingSejong (@KingSejong) August 26, 2017

This file photo is of rugby player Andre Jin Coquillard, who recently was approved for naturalization in Korea, according to the Korea Rugby Union on Aug. 26, 2017. Born to a Korean mother and American father, Coquillard, currently a forward with Korea’s military team, had joined the Korean national squad in 2015. He needed the naturalization to play in the Olympics. (Yonhap)

The final group of Americans willing to pay Kim Jong-un foreign currency to help support his missile and nuclear programs has traveled to North Korea:

A group of American travelers ― probably the last before the U.S. government bans its citizens from visiting the reclusive state from Sept. 1 ― landed in North Korea on Saturday.

The eight travelers ― include CNN correspondent Will Ripley on his 14th trip ― were undeterred by possible arrest, imprisonment or nuclear war.

Details about the other tourists, including their itinerary, are unknown. Beijing-based Koryo Tours organized the visit, which general manager Simon Cockerell is leading on his 165th trip to the North.

“It [the ban] is a pity for anyone curious who wants to go, but especially for North Koreans who might want to know what American visitors are really like,” Cockerell told CNN.  [Korea Times]

You can read more at the link, but this travel ban should have been in place a long time ago.