The North Korean crisis continues to escalate, without any sign of imminent relief. Japanese voters have renewed the mandate of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, this time to amend the national constitution's prohibition against war. US Defence Secretary James Mattis said last weekend Pyongyang engages in outlaw behaviour. He vowed the US will never accept a nuclear North Korea. South Korean Defence Minister Song Young-moo was at his side.
There are two forces at work, both of them increasing tension. One is the unceasing public propaganda back-and-forth. This is especially noticeable from the North Korean press and the often unpresidential tweets by US President Donald Trump.
These even have resorted to name calling and personal slanders by and against Mr Trump and North Korea's "Dear Leader" Kim Jong-un. But from virtually all sources, the only talk heard is bellicose. Mr Mattis, for example, during his brief trip to Seoul after he left Bangkok, emphasised this negative view. Any North Korean attack, he threatened, "will be met with a massive military response that is effective and overwhelming".
North Korea is of course never outdone in the dangerous game of mutual threats. It has threatened to attack Guam, threatened to work towards a nuclear strike on Washington. North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong-ho claimed the right to shoot down US military aircraft anywhere in the world. Last week, before Mr Mattis' comments, Mr Ri told the US-based news network CNN that Mr Kim is planning to test a nuclear weapon over the Pacific Ocean.
In the face of all this quite dangerous rhetoric, there is a lamentable and also dangerous lack of balance. In particular, the Chinese and Russian leaders and governments have been almost silent. So too has the secretary-general of the UN, not to mention regional groups such as Asean. Moscow and Beijing are partners in the currently moribund six-party talks, which have the goal of cooling passions and bringing good sense to the negotiating table.
Next week sees the annual round of Asia-centric meetings centred around the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation group's summit. North Korea is not a member, but the leaders of China, Russia, the US, South Korea and Japan will be present. So will many other leaders, presumably including Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha and all other Asean government heads.
This is where proper diplomacy has to kick in. While the basic issue is North Korea's illegal and cavalier nuclear testing, not everyone is doing his part to prevent open warfare. Most troubling is the rhetoric from Washington, where Mr Trump apparently sees himself as the clever "bad cop" in a "good cop-bad cop" storm of tweets and press conference appearances. The problem is that both his defence secretary and the Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson, are not playing their roles as the helpful intermediaries.
Mr Abe, too, has done more to stoke escalation than to calm it. Even if one accepts that the Japanese constitution needs to change its pacifist sections -- which so many do not -- it's rather shameless to use the Korean crisis as a crutch to do so. North Korean nuclear weapons pose a potential and existential threat to Japan, no doubt. But the prime minister should not be playing politics with that.
There is tremendous opportunity for the Apec summits, political and business, along with the top-level Asean meetings in Vietnam and the Philippines this coming week. Pyongyang's nuclear threat is unacceptable. But so is escalation leading to war. Getting top leaders to dial back the rhetoric should be the aim of attendees at the Apec-Asean meetings.
