Calm foresight needed with North Korea

Escalating tensions with North Korea will backfire, not only for its neighbours but its citizens who should matter as much, writes Yoon Young-kwan

THE world’s task in addressing North Korea’s saber rattling is made no easier by the fact that it confronts an impoverished and effectively defeated country. On the contrary, it is in such circumstances that calm foresight is most necessary.

The genius of the Habsburg Empire’s Prince Klemens von Metternich in framing a new international order after the Napoleonic Wars was that he did not push a defeated France into a corner.