Business as usual, or a sign that Japan is taking the latest belligerence from North Korea more seriously? CNN reports from one of the Patriot missile batteries that sprang up overnight in three places around Tokyo. They aren’t taking any chances on whether Kim Jong-un and the DPRK are blowing smoke or really want to blow up the region:

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is taking the crisis more seriously as well.  The BBC reports on Ban’s worry that the tensions could create a war via misunderstanding, and urged Kim to de-escalate the crisis:

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has warned the crisis on the Korean peninsula may become “uncontrollable”.

He once again urged North Korea to tone down its “provocative rhetoric” and to keep open a joint North-South Korean industrial complex. …

Speaking to reporters in Rome, Mr Ban said: “If any small incident is caused by miscalculation or misjudgement, it may create an uncontrollable situation.”

He also called for the Kaesong Industrial Complex to be kept open, calling it “one of the most successful cooperative projects between the South and North”.

Japan has also sent two of its most modern warships out to bolster its missile defenses.  If North Korea plans to test its missiles over Japan, it appears that Japan is ready to test its missile defenses and send another message to Pyongyang — and that may start exactly what Ban fears.

It’s been a while since we’ve heard from the Virtual President of the United States, Bill Whittle.  Fortunately, the VPOTUS held a virtual press conference today, explaining that the problems with smoking guns is that the bullets have already been fired.  The trick in crises like these is to smash the guns before they smoke (via the Right Scoop):