ewan graham is a senior fellow at the school of international studies.s me now from singapore to talk more about this. so thank you for being with us. what is this latest visit going to do in terms of putting pressure on north korea and at the same time, shoring up support for it's a ally south korea? >> i think on the symbolic side we see ashton cart never his first asian trip going to two capitals tokyo and seoul. so it shows south korea is high up the list of u.s. priorities. he's also visiting the scene of an infamous naval attack that the north koreans sank a south korean ship five years ago. however, the one significant difference between the u.s. and the r.o.k. at the moment concerns visible defense as you mentioned, but that one area is off the agenda for the talks. so in that sense, i don't think north korea will be feeling anymore pressure. >> what about this latest police ballistic missile test that occurred this week. it is the first one in a couple of years but doesn't it tell us that whatever pressure international pressure is being put on