Biden set for first Asia trip as N. Korea nuke fears rise

Washington: President Joe Biden will leave for South Korea and Japan to cement US leadership in Asia at a time when the White House’s attention has been pulled back to Russia and Europe – and amid fears of North Korean nuclear tests overshadowing the trip.

The visits are being touted as proof that the United States is building on recent moves to cement its years-long pivot to Asia.

But highlighting competing demands from two sides of the world, Biden will meet at the White House with the leaders of Finland and Sweden to celebrate their applications for joining Nato before he boards Air Force One for Seoul.

The Democrat is headed to South Korea, then Japan on Sunday to hold summits with the leaders of both countries, as well as joining a regional summit of the Quad – a grouping of Australia, India, Japan, and the United States – in Tokyo.

During the first leg, he will visit US and South Korean troops, but will not make the traditional trek to the DMZ between South and North Korea, the White House said.

National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan insisted there was no “tension” between the European and Asian issues, calling them “mutually reinforcing”.

Officials say North Korea’s nuclear weapons programme is a wild card on the trip.

Sullivan said it was possible that North Korea, which has defied UN sanctions in conducting an array of nuclear-capable missile tests this year, could use Biden’s visit to stage “provocations”.

This could mean “long-range missile tests or a nuclear test, or both, in the days leading into, on or after the president’s trip to the region”, he said.