Earlier this month, when many in Japan were enjoying the arrival of spring and the accompanying cherry blossoms, something else was in the sky, something much more dangerous than a warm breeze: a three-stage missile, launched from North Korea.
The launch was meant to be taken as concrete proof the country ought to be taken more seriously by other world players, especially the United States.
Although the missile failed to travel as far as planned and was thus a technical failure, the exercise did manage to scare a lot of Japanese citizens. From this point of view, the launch could be seen as a success in the kind of negative PR style North Korea has used for decades.