US dismisses North Korean missile launches as Biden says he’s open to talks
Senior Biden administration officials are playing down North Korean shortrange missile launches last weekend, and saying the US president is still open to a dialogue with North Korea.
Officials, who briefed reporters on the missile launches, said on Tuesday that they were on the low end of the spectrum and not covered by various UN security council resolutions. They said the Biden administration was close to a conclusion of its policy review of North Korea and that the national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, will discuss it next week with his counterparts in Japan and South Korea.
North Korea test-fired two shortrange missiles over the weekend, officials said. One expert suggested it was a relatively mild move as Pyongyang lobbies for a relaxation of sanctions over its nuclear and missile programs.
Two US officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, declined to offer details on the launches, which came after North Korea refused to engage with repeated behind-the-scenes diplomatic overtures by Joe Biden’s team since mid-February.
Jenny Town, director of 38 North, a US-based website that tracks North Korea, said that if North Korea had conducted a missile test, the move was “pretty mild”.
A top US general last week had warned of the near-term possibility of a far more provocative move: a decision by North Korea to begin flight testing an improved design for its intercontinental ballistic missiles.
Such a move would sharply increase tension between the United States and North Korea.
“My guess is that it has more to do with the joint exercises than anything else. This kind of testing around the military exercises is pretty common,” Town said, referring to joint US-South Korean military exercises.
The drills earlier this month unnerved Pyongyang even though they were scaled back this year to become computer-simulated drills.
A top North Korean diplomat last week said the country would never answer US diplomatic overtures until Washington dropped hostile policies and called for sanctions relief.
North Korea maintained and developed its nuclear and ballistic missile programs throughout 2020 in violation of international sanctions, helping fund them with some $300m stolen through cyber hacks, according to independent UN sanctions monitors.
North Korea has been subjected to UN sanctions since 2006. They have been strengthened by the 15-member security council over the years in an effort to cut off funding for Pyongyang’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs.
Typically, China and Russia – who are security council veto powers along with the United States, Britain and France – have viewed a test of only a long-range missile or a nuclear weapon as a trigger for further possible UN sanctions.