It has been said that history repeats as tragedy followed by farce. Speculation mounted to fever pitch that North Korea was set to conduct another nuclear test on April 16. There are three immediate takeaways from the tense crisis. U.S. threats and intimidation failed to deter North Korea from conducting a missile test; the test was a flop with the missile exploding immediately after takeoff; and there are no good options on North Korea.
The beleaguered Trump administration, adrenalin still pumping after domestic and international approbation for bombing Syria with cruise missiles and dropping the mother of all bombs on Islamic State militants in Afghanistan, threatened to solve North Korea too unilaterally. Washington announced it had dispatched an aircraft carrier group led by the USS Carl Vinson — President Donald Trump called it a "very powerful armada" — to the region.
Pyongyang kept up its shrill rhetoric of defiance. The world feared an imminent nuclear tragedy that turned to farce as the armada disappeared before reappearing thousands of miles away off the coast of Australia. "The revelation," said The Wall Street Journal, "sparked ridicule in some corners of Asia and wariness in others."