After two and a half months of relative quiet, North Korea’s Kim Jong-un has jolted four nations with Wednesday’s test of a ballistic missile, one that almost literally has had inter-continental reverberations. Pyongyang’s robust response to last week’s cache of crippling sanctions has had an immediate impact with President Donald Trump threatening to impose yet more sanctions and China’s Xi Jinping condemning the latest test as “provocative action by North Korea”, couched in the warning that “additional sanctions will be imposed today and that this situation will be handled”.

Reports do suggest that the new rocket can hit  “anywhere in the US”, and not Alaska alone. Hence the flurry of diplomatic activity in Beijing, Seoul, Tokyo and Washington. Indeed, the stout diplomatic response that the blast has ignited has been underscored by the statement of America’s ambassador to the UN, Nikki Haley. She has cautioned the Security Council’s emergency session  that the latest ballistic missile launch “brings us closer to war which would end the North Korean regime”. Direly imperative is an immmediate response of the Security Council, shedding the prevarication that has marked its dealings with Syria. Palpably enough, the blast has unnerved the concert of world powers that is now in place in the immediate aftermath of the Hawsong-15 missile plunging into the choppy Sea of Japan.

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Wednesday witnessed  the sixth missile test this year; and yet Pyongyang’s defiance of American economic reprisals and worldwide alarm has  never elicited so furious an international response, most particularly that of Beijing. There is little doubt that the test was primarily intended to emit a signal to Japan and the US. In the event it is poised to effect a redefinition of geostrategy, if the reaction  from Washington to Beijing via the Security Council is any indication. Of critical import is the response of China which has asked its ally to stop action that can heighten tension in the Korean peninsula.

Sad to reflect that such “action” has happened with awesome regularity.  Beijing has urged Pyongyang to abide by the Security Council resolutions on the use of ballistic missile technology. In retrospect and contextualised with the timeline of such blasts,  China’s response amounts to too little, too late.   Beijing has previously rejected measures that could destabilize the Kim regime, saying that military force cannot be an option in dealing with the tensions. The “Little Rocket Man” deserved to be cautioned much earlier. He has brought the “hermit kingdom” to a stage that is beyond hope, beyond despair.  The scenario calls for decisive action, more tangible than Mr Trump’s sniper attack that the “Little Rocket Man is a sick puppy”.  The latest test reaffirms that the North has effected a dramatic improvement in its capability, and to the shock and awe of the comity of nations