Editorial: A pathetic cry for attention

Thursday, July 6, 2006 | 7:25 a.m.

The United States and other countries, including China, Japan and South Korea, had been anticipating that North Korea would defy their warnings against test-firing missiles into the Sea of Japan.

Their instincts were proven correct as the starving, communist nation ruled by Kim Jong Il chose July Fourth, minutes after the launch of the space shuttle Discovery in Florida, to announce its defiance with a test of seven missiles, including one supposedly with a long range that malfunctioned 42 seconds after takeoff.

President Bush all along has handled the situation with restraint, despite some pressure to act more aggressively. William J. Perry, who served under President Clinton as defense secretary and who tamed North Korea's nuclear-weapons ambitions in the mid-1990s, for example, had called for bombing Kim Jong Il's long-range missile while it sat on the launch pad.

Bush, wisely, rejected such unilateral action and decided, along with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and others in his administration, that dealing with North Korea's missile threat is a shared responsibility. News stories following word of the missile launches reported that Rice and U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton were at that moment conferring with numerous world leaders.

We have no doubt that the United States military was fully prepared for any necessary action had the missiles posed a threat. Such preparedness is obligatory, but we were glad to see that it did not accelerate at the behest of an overreactive White House.

North Korea's leadership demonstrated irrationality in launching the missiles, as the action had no support whatsoever from any credible nation. It was an especially grave diplomatic affront to China and South Korea, two nations which have been among the few that have opened economic ties with the bizarre Kim Jong Il, who chooses to be estranged from most of the world even though it causes widespread suffering among his own people.

We do not see North Korea's missile launches as any more than a pathetic grab for attention by a seriously misguided leader. Bush is taking the right course by working with the world community in determining the proper response to the incident.