U.S. officials have been warned while the U.S. and South Korea are conducting scattered military exercises, while U.S. Secretary of State Tony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin are in Asia for meetings with their Japanese and French counterparts. South Korea.
“We will not comment on intelligence issues,” Defense Department of Defense Lt. Col. Martin Meiners said in a statement. “North Korea’s continued development of ballistic missiles and weapons of mass destruction represents a threat to U.S. interests and the security of our friends and partners. In the short term, the DoD, in close coordination with friends and partners, to prevent negative behavior from North Korea. “
Some kind of test or stimulus would not be a surprise, regional experts said.
“North Korea has traditionally taken strong action early in the new U.S. and South Korean administrations,” said Bruce Klingner, a senior researcher at the Heritage Foundation who noted experiments conducted in 2017 , shortly after former President Donald Trump took office, and in 2009, to mark the arrival of President Barack Obama to the White House. “The idea was to‘ train them like a dog, ’the North Korean defender told me,” Klingner said, to awaken discounts from the two most powerful countries.
“So history would show that they would do something in the first months of Biden administration as well,” he said. “If they do trigger, it’s totally expected.”
White House press secretary Jen Psaki declined to respond to the comment Tuesday. “We have no direct comment or response to the comments made from North Korea,” Psaki told reporters in a briefing aboard the Air Force One board, en route to Philadelphia with the President.She noted the meetings between Blinken, Austin, and their peers, where “of course, the security of the region will be a topic of debate.”
Later in the week, Blinken and national security adviser Jake Sullivan will also travel to Alaska to meet with their Chinese peers, Psaki also said who will feature a discussion on “security in the department. “
Blinken and Austin reaffirmed their commitment to “total North Korean denuclearization” in Japan on Tuesday and to create opportunities for further cooperation between the U.S., Japan, and South Korea, according to a U.S. State Department statement.
They will hold meetings in South Korea on local time Wednesday.
General warns of North Korea’s ‘appalling success’
On Tuesday, the U.S. senior general issued a public warning of the threat posed by North Korea
“Kim Jong Un’s regime has achieved alarming success in an effort to show that it is possible to threaten the home country of the U.S. with ICBMs with nuclear weapons, believing that such weapons are necessary to prevent military action by the United States. USA and ensuring the survival of his regime, ”Gen. Glen Van Herck, commander of the U.S. Northern Command and responsible for the defense of the U.S. continent, told the Senate Military Services Committee Tuesday.
The possibility of a test in the coming days has prompted Biden administration officials across several agencies to consider how to deal publicly if that happens, officials said.
Officers would not be specific about what the latest information shows, but it is a likely scenario, based on images and other information, that a test could be a missile or rocket engine. The last known North Korean weapons test was in March 2020.
Over the past few days, U.S. intelligence has been targeting vehicle activity at a site near Sanum-dong, outside Pyongyang, where ballistic missile vehicles are believed to have been fired and fired. previously launched a space launch.
Officials tell CNN that if North Korea conducts a trial while the two secretaries are in Asia, it would send a sharp message to Biden that Kim wants to make sure he is seen as a key player in the region. However, testing would not come as a shock, with many analysts surprised that Kim has stopped making one for so long.
The U.S. response would vary depending on what exactly, the Pyongyang test.
If North Korea conducts a nuclear test or an ICBM test, especially a test of ICBM that they marched in October 2020 that was nicknamed the “Monster ICBM,” which would be “a cause for concern, it would be very encouraging,” Klingner.
“It would violate the intentions of the DA on a large scale; it would require a strong Biden administrative response; and it would prevent diplomatic reach. When they do something provocative, it stops diplomacy three to six months because no one wants to be seen to reward that kind of behavior, “he continued.
If Pyongyang tests missiles, the questions that will determine the U.S. response are what range the missiles were, how far it traveled and whether it traveled over Japanese territory, Klingner said. Rocket engine tests are “not really a breakdown, but they are not helpful,” he said.
Trump refused to launch missiles in the latter part of his presidency
Trump denied the highest number of North Korean missile shots in 2019, arguing that they did not break Kim Jong Un’s promise not to launch nuclear tests or ICBM – although the North Korean leader had stated that he needs to do these tests more because those programs were there complete secrets and the DA is urging Pyongyang not to launch at all.
The Biden administration is still reviewing North Trump’s North Korean policy, which could be finalized “in the coming weeks,” according to a senior state department chief.
Weapons and intelligence officials have long said that they estimate that North Korea continued to research and develop nuclear missiles and warheads throughout the Trump administration in spite of public astronomy from Trump and his. now Biden administrations about deception nuclearization.
“North Korea’s continued pursuit of weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missile programs poses a tremendous threat to the United States and our friends and partners in the region,” said David Helvey, acting deputy secretary of defense for Indo- Pacific, to the House of Arms Services Committee last week.
This story has been updated with a report from the Department of Defense.
Jennifer Hansler from CNN, Nicole Gaouette, Kylie Atwood and Caroline Kelly contributed to this report.