Any major North Korea weapons test over the next five days could overshadow U.S. President Joe Biden’s broader trip focus on bolstering Asian allies against China, analysts say.
Despite the Biden administration’s vow to break a stalemate in denuclearization talks with North Korea with practical approaches, no progress has been made since he came into office in early 2021. Instead, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has resumed testing his largest missiles.
U.S. and South Korean officials said North Korea appeared to be preparing another intercontinental ballistic missile test, that could some as soon as Thursday or Friday, despite North Korea’s battle with its first admitted COVID-19 outbreak.
While Pyongyang resumed ICBM launches this year, it has not tested a nuclear bomb since 2017.
Although U.S. national security head Jake Sullivan said Wednesday this was a possibility, analysts and officials see it as less likely than a missile launch.
Explaining Kim’s likely motivation, Ankit Panda, of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said on Twitter he had used “the accomplishments of the national defense industry as a beacon in the dark economic times of the last two years.”
via Reuters
