North Korea tested seven missiles on Wednesday, one of which was a long-range Taepodong-2, believed to be capable of hitting Alaska. South Korean intelligence officials also said that North Korea was likely to carry out a second Taepodong-2 test after fixing technical problems that doomed the first one to crash into the Sea of Japan (East Sea).

The missile launches came as a surprise. Japan and the U.S., the two countries which are most anxious about developments in North Korea, responded by calling for a tough UN resolution imposing sanctions on Pyongyang. However, China and Russia are opposed to punitive measures.

The missile tests brought back memories of the Cold War era in the Korean Peninsula, which was the tense scene of rivalry between the capitalist and communist camps. The tests will definitely have repercussions, and will probably help convince Japan that it should go ahead with the proposed missile defense shield project with the U.S. This would be in the interests of no country.

However, these developments are viewed differently in South Korea. The partition of the peninsula in the 1950-1953 Korean War has pained families in both countries. Korean people on both sides of the border hate to see any escalation of the situation. Their memories of the fratricidal Cold War era are still fresh, and they long for reunification.

The last vestiges of the Cold War were slowly beginning to disappear in the Korean Peninsula as former South Korean president Kim Dae Jung made a historic visit to Pyongyang in 2000 under his trademark Sunshine Policy of engaging the northern neighbor and former U.S. secretary of state Madeleine Albright visited North Korea in the last days of the Clinton administration but then there was a sudden brake when President George W. Bush ordered a review of U.S. engagement with North Korea immediately after he took power in 2001.

What is the result of the review policy after six years? It has only given rise to an intensification of animosity and talk of an arms race in Northeast Asia, encouraging Japan to make moves to revise its pacifist constitution, to the alarm of its neighbors, who still have bitter memories of World War II.

These developments clearly show that the extremist policy that the U.S. hawks have been pursuing over the past five and a half years has undermined efforts to establish world peace and international stability. Even the U.S. administration’s so-called war on terror has made the world less safe, as opinion polls suggest. Professor Kim Yeon-Chul of Korea University's Asiatic Research Centre says: "North Korea's nuclear and missile capability has been ever growing under the Bush administration."

Kim added: "This raises questions about the moralistic approach in diplomacy by Washington.”

Developments in Northeast Asia once again illustrate that extremism begets extremism. This is not an acceptable policy for dealing with regional and international issues.

Yet, perhaps the U.S. hawks are pursuing an “out of chaos, order” policy in order to realize their goals.