If the Kim regime timed the missile launch to have a direct impact on elections in nearby Japan and South Korea, it may have succeeded merely in boosting support for defense-oriented conservative parties. Indeed, although it is difficult to say how large an impact the launch had on the result in Japan, the Liberal Democratic Party (of which I am a member, serving as Deputy Chair of the election campaign) won a landslide victory.
如果金正恩政权选择此时发射是为直接影响日韩邻国的选举结果，它也许只是成功提高了公众对以防御为核心的保守党的支持。其实，尽管很难界定发射在多大程度上影响了日本的选举，自民党（我本人是自民党党员，并担任竞选活动副主席）获得压倒性胜利却是不争的事实。尽管朴槿惠在以国内经济问题为主线的竞选获胜后成为韩国有史以来第一位女总统，但朝鲜以导弹发射为标志的外交冒险政策或许令众多犹豫不决的选民倒向了主张防御的朴槿惠阵营。