War in Asia could drag in Canada

North Korea’s missile launch over Japan on Tuesday is a reminder that the new cold war covers a lot of ground.

The test sent residents in the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido scrambling for bomb shelters. It also caused a panicked South Korea to launch its own missile, which crashed and exploded near the southern city of Gangneung.

Neither the North Korean nor the South Korean missile carried nuclear warheads. But both could have been nuclear. The two Koreas are increasingly facing off in Asia, threatening a war that could end up dragging in other nations — including Canada.

For a while, during the presidency of Donald Trump, it appeared that the two Koreas could come to some kind of agreement that would limit the scope of nuclear weaponry on the Korean Peninsula.

Supporters of such a deal included South Korea’s then president Moon Jae-in.

But when Moon’s time in office ended this year, he was replaced by the much more hawkish Yoon Suk Yeol.

Yoon has no interest in reaching a rapprochement with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un. Conversely, Kim has no interest in forging a deal with Yoon; he wants to be wooed by U.S. President Joe Biden.

It was only a matter of time until North Korea resumed its provocative policy of missile testing. This week, Kim drew Japan back into the equation.

For the first time in five years, North Korea sent missiles over Japanese territory.

In doing this, Kim was making a number of points. First, he was attacking a country, Japan, that many Koreans — both North and South — view negatively from its time as a former colonial power.

Second, he was reminding Washington that North Korean missiles can travel great distances, potentially hitting targets not only in Japan but in the U.S. territory of Guam.

Third, by avoiding the use of nuclear weapons, he was leaving the door open to future talks about the fate of nukes on the Korean Peninsula.

Fourth — and this was more by happenstance than planning — he was reminding South Koreans that retaliation is a tricky business. The South and its U.S. allies responded to Tuesday’s event with their own missile test. But they got it wrong and ended up exploding a missile in their own territory.

For some reason, Yoon has focused South Korea’s attention on Canada. Canada was the first country he made a bilateral visit to after winning power. He and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau talked about the economy, but they also spent time discussing the new cold war in both its European (Ukraine) and Asian (Korean) manifestations.

This is not the first time that Canada has been asked to revisit the Korean War. A similar request was made by the U.S. when Trump was president. That request was relatively simple and involved organizing an international conference.

What exactly Canada is supposed to do this time, however, remains very unclear.