BREAKING: North Korea tests ballistic missile

Hours after Rex Tillerson gave a stern warning to North Korea at the United Nations Security Council, about giving up its weapons programmes, North Korea test fired a ballistic missile.

The move was more symbolic than materially relevant, but the symbolism will not be lost on the deep state nor on its new best friends in the Trump White House.

Although South Korean reports said that the launch was a technical failure, this may matter increasingly little to the US that has been on the path to open conflict in the Korean Peninsula, in spite of a recent pseudo-climb down.

READ MORE: UN Security Council debates further sanctions on North Korea

The move to test the ballistic missile will almost certainly receive widespread condemnation, but only the US and some of its closest allies may be willing to risk war over what amounts to North Korea testing a failed weapon on its own territory, an act which directly threatens no one.

North Korea and the US are playing into each others hands with this kind of irresponsible brinkmanship. China and Russia have both warned Pyongyang and Washington not to escalate the conflict. The United States and North Korea are both acting in a deeply irresponsible manner via-a-vis the calm, stern and mature diplomatic approach employed by both Moscow and Beijing.

The warnings, if heeded, could possibly save the world from war between two nuclear powers.