North Korea’s Tuesday morning missile firing, in which it sent an intermediate-range ballistic missile soaring over Japan, didn’t demonstrate any new capability, but it did display renewed contempt for international efforts to pressure Pyongyang to give up its nuclear weapons.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has said he has no intention of negotiating away what he sees as the only way to guarantee his grip on power, but Washington routinely treats bellicose, and sometimes over-the-top, statements from the North as empty bluster.