Rex Tillerson still has a skeleton crew at the State Department to deal with North Korea

North Korea’s launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile this week was condemned by the Pentagon, which said the missile was of a type “we’ve not seen before.”

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un reveled in the successful test, saying his country would never abandon nuclear weapons while vowing to continue sending “gift packages” to Washington.

The US and South Korea responded by firing missiles into the South Korean waters to counter what the US Army called ” North Korea’s destabilizing and unlawful actions on July 4.” (The US has flown bombers over the Korean Peninsula several times in recent months as well.)

As this period of contentious relations with North Korea drags on, the US is without an important component of its foreign police apparatus.

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