North Korea tested several short-range missiles during the weekend, senior US officials said on Tuesday, in a first such military activity by Pyongyang after US President Joe Biden took office.
The officials, however, played down the tests, saying they were in the “low end” of the spectrum of provocative actions Pyongyang is known to undertake to send a message to the United States. The systems used in the weekend tests were not covered by UN missile testing bans.
South Korea’s defence ministry said two missiles were fired from South Pyongan province on Sunday morning and flew over the sea between the peninsula and China, according to a Bloomberg report.
The Biden administration remains open to a dialogue with North Korea, the US officials said. Its North Korea policy review is in the “final stages” and a draft will be discussed next week at a meeting US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan is hosting with his counterparts from Japan and South Korea.
Asked about the missile tests, Biden told reporters, “We have learned that… nothing much has changed.”
{{/usCountry}}Asked about the missile tests, Biden told reporters, “We have learned that… nothing much has changed.”
{{/usCountry}}The weekend tests followed warnings last week from North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s sister Kim Yo-jong to the Biden administration in view of its North Korea policy review, and upcoming visits of US secretary of state Antony Blinken and defence secretary Lloyd Austin to South Korea and Japan for their respective 2+2 bilateral dialogues.
“A word of advice to the new administration of the United States that is struggling to spread the smell of gunpowder on our land from across the ocean,” she was quoted as saying in official media. “If it wants to sleep in peace for (the) coming four years, it had better refrain from causing a stink at its first step.”
Former US president Donald Trump’s two summit meetings with North Korea’s Kim Jong-un in Singapore in 2018 and in Hanoi, Vietnam in 2019 had raised hopes of an agreement over nuclear disarmament and sanctions.
But, as one of the officials told reporters on Tuesday, “It’s over a year ago now - there has been actually very little dialogue or interaction between the United States and North Korea (since).”
The official added, “We are on our forward foot, in terms of wanting to clearly signal that we are prepared for continuing engagement in northeast Asia with key partners and indeed with North Korea.”