U.S. Officials are cautious because the U.S. And South Korea scaled down, simulates military exercises and U.S. Secretary Tony Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin are in Asia for a meeting with their Japanese and South Korean counterparts.
No test or provocation of any kind would come as a surprise, regional experts said.
Bruce Klinger, a senior research fellow at the Heritage Foundation, said in a look at the tests conducted in 2017 after former President Donald Trump took over, that North Korea has traditionally been a U.S. ally. And both South Koreans have initially taken some kind of provocative action in the new administration. In view of the arrival of former President Barack Obama in office and in 2009. “The idea was to train them like dogs,” Klingner said, accepting concessions from more powerful countries.
“So history has shown that they will do something even in the first few months of the Biden administration.” “If they provoke, it’s a complete guess.”
White House Press Secretary Jane Sasaki declined to comment Tuesday. “We do not have a direct comment or response to the remarks made by North Korea,” Pasaki told reporters at a briefing on the board’s Air Force One flight to Philadelphia with the president. He pointed to meetings between Blinken, Instein and his counterparts, where “certainly, the security of the region will be the subject of discussion.”
Later this week, Blinken and National Security Adviser Jack Sullivan also traveled to Alaska for a visit with their Chinese counterparts, which Pasaki also said would “discuss security in the region.”
Blinken and Austin reaffirmed their commitment to “North Korea’s full nuclear power” in Japan on Tuesday and also to creating opportunities for further cooperation between the US, Japan and South Korea. A statement from the State Department said.
They will meet in South Korea on Wednesday local time.
A senior U.S. official said North Korea may decide to go through the test after seeing what emerges from Blinkon and Austin’s meetings in Asia.
The general warned of North Korea’s ‘worrying success’
On Tuesday, a senior U.S. general issued a public warning about the threat posed by North Korea.
“Kim Jong Un’s regime has had tremendous success in its campaign to demonstrate its ability to threaten the U.S. homeland with a nuclear-armed ICBM, believing that such weapons are necessary to prevent U.S. military action and ensure the survival of its regime. ” U.S. The head of the Northern Command and responsible for the defense of the continental United States, the Senate Armed Services Committee said Tuesday.
With the possibility of a trial in the coming days, officials from the Biden administration have begun discussing in several agencies how to respond in public if that happens, officials said.
Officials are not clear about what the latest intelligence shows, but based on the possible scenario, image and other intelligence, it is possible that there may be no missile or rocket engine testing. The last known North Korean weapons test was conducted in March 2020.
For the past few days, U.S. intelligence has been focusing on vehicle activity near Sunam-dong, outside Pyongyang, where ballistic missiles and space launch vehicles are believed to have been built in the past.
Officials tell CNN that if North Korea conducts a test while both secretaries are in Asia, it will send a pointed message to Biden that Kim wants to make sure he is seen as a key player in the region. However, the test did not come as a shock, with many analysts surprisingly avoiding testing Kim for so long.
The U.S. response will change depending on how Pyongyang tested it.
Klingner said that if North Korea conducts a nuclear test or ICBM test, especially the ICBM test they paraded in October 2020, called “Monster ICBM”, it would be very provocative.
“It would be a breach of UN resolutions. It would require a strong response from Biden admin; and it would reduce diplomatic reach. When they do something provocative, they put a three to six month break on diplomacy because there is no one.” Wants to see rewards, “he added.
If Pyongyang tests a missile, the U.S. response will determine how many missiles it has, how much it travels over Japanese territory, and what it will fly, Klinger said. That said, rocket engine tests are not really a violation, but not helpful.
Trump ignored the missile launch in the latter part of his presidency
Trump ignored North Korea’s record number of missile launches in 2019, arguing that he would not break Kim Jong Un’s pledge not to launch nuclear or ICBM tests – although the North Korean leader announced he would now take the tests. Not necessarily because those programs were complete and Pyongyang should not make any launches for UN resolutions.
According to a senior State Department official, the Biden administration is still reviewing the Trump administration’s North Korea policy, which could be completed “in the coming weeks.”
While Biden is unlikely to write “love letters” to Kim Jong Un like his predecessor, Biden’s administration has not been able to introduce a clear break from the previous administration in its set goals for its approach to the Hermitage Kingdom. On several occasions, in testimonies, statements or briefings, U.S. Officials have said their goal is “complete nuclearization of North Korea.”
Military and intelligence officials have long said they assess that despite public rhetoric from Trump and now the Biden administration on nuclearization, North Korea has continued with research and development of missiles and nuclear weapons throughout the Trump administration.
“North Korea’s continued pursuit of weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missile programs poses an extraordinary threat to the United States and our allies and partners in the region,” said David Hellway, acting assistant secretary of defense for Indo-Pacific affairs. Services Committee last week.
The story was updated on Tuesday with additional details.
CNN’s Jennifer Hensler, Nicole Gowet and Kylie Atwood contributed to this report.
.
