The Biden administration downplayed North Korea’s (North Korea) weekend launch of two short-range missiles and said it remains open to dialogue with the North, U.S. and South Korean officials said on March 23.
Two high-ranking Biden Administration officials told reporters at a telephone briefing that the North’s test launch involved a lower-tier weapons system that is not covered by the U.N. Security Council’s test ban.
South Korea’s military said the North launched two cruise missiles from the west coast on Sunday (March 21).
The South Korean Joint Staff Headquarters told reporters Wednesday (24) that South Korea had previously detected signs of an impending test launch and was monitoring it in real Time. South Korea’s Joint Staff Headquarters can report news of North Korea’s test launches of advanced weapons such as nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles in near real time, but will not release news of lower-grade, shorter-range weapons.
This is the first North Korean weapons test known to the outside world since U.S. President Joe Biden took office.
But Biden downplayed this latest move by North Korea, saying “nothing has changed.”
“No, according to the Defense Department, it’s business as usual. There’s nothing new in what they’ve done,” Biden said when asked by reporters if the test launch was a provocation.
The Biden administration has made several behind-the-scenes diplomatic contacts with North Korea since mid-February, but the North has not responded.
The Biden administration is nearing completion of a comprehensive assessment of its policy toward North Korea, and the national security adviser will hold discussions with relevant officials in Japan and South Korea next week, the senior U.S. officials said.
One of the officials said the U.S. has had “very little dialogue or interaction” with North Korea since a failed summit between former U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Hanoi, Vietnam, in February 2019. The U.S. tried to convince North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons at that summit.
“There had been no active dialogue with North Korea for more than a year before the U.S. attempted to reach out to North Korea, despite repeated attempts by both administrations to engage,” the second official said, adding that “we don’t believe the activities that occurred over the weekend closed the door to dialogue.”
The Pentagon would not comment on North Korea’s test missile launch. The test launch was first reported by The Washington Post. The North Korean mission to the United Nations also did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Jenny Town, director of 38 North, a U.S.-based website that tracks developments in North Korea, said the North’s action seemed “pretty mild.
Last week a senior U.S. general warned that North Korea could begin test flights of an improved intercontinental ballistic missile “in the very near future,” a move that would dramatically increase tensions between Pyongyang and Washington.
“My guess is that this is more connected to joint exercises,” Town said of the weekend’s test launch. “It’s a fairly common action to conduct such tests before and after military exercises.”
This month’s joint U.S.-South Korean military exercises angered North Korea, although this year they turned into a computer simulation exercise.
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