On Pyongyang

The sequence, dated. North Korea fires its ninth ballistic missile of the year, the second inside a week, protesting the joint exercises with South Korea ¹. Four days later the exercises are ordered "substantially reduce[d]" — the president calling them a signal "totally inappropriate and hostile" toward a state he finds "unthreatening and respectful" ². The unthreatening state ordered its missile production capacity raised 2.5-fold over five years in June ³. Fire nine missiles demanding an end to the drills; receive the end of the drills. There is a word for payment delivered to a threat, and it is not diplomacy — it is the oldest line item in the ledger. The needle reads TRIBUTE because the ledger does: the demand was priced and it was paid, by the man who told a rally "we fell in love" about the letters from the demander ⁴. The ally that showed up for every drill was billed for a war it refused to join ².