A new intercontinental ballistic missile system tested by North Korea has the Biden administration panicking – calling the move a “serious escalation.”
While the tests did not demonstrate ICBM range or capability, the senior Biden admin official is worried a future launch at “full range,” may be imminent and that it could be disguised as a space launch.
“The United States strongly condemns the DPRK for these tests,” the official said. “These launches are a brazen violation of multiple United Nations Security Council resolutions, aimlessly raise tensions and risk destabilizing the security situation in the region.”
The official added that unlike North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s past tests, his country “tried to hide these escalatory steps.”
North Korea has been resuming their past trend of concerning tests after a period of peace following President Trump’s ability to become the first president ever to build a good relationship with the nation.
The weaker Biden administration which has not inspired much confidence given its embarrassing efforts on the global stage, is apparently pressing forward in the pursuit of a diplomatic solution.
The official said the administration is “prepared to meet without preconditions.”
“President Biden himself has previously made clear that he is open to meeting with Kim Jong Un when there is a serious agreement on the table,” the official noted, though its not likely such a meeting will ever actually happen.
North Korea completed more missile tests in January than it did in all of 2021, creating cause of concern among the South Koreans who fear their neighbor’s increasing aggression.
North Korea in January attempted to justify its testing activity as an exercise of its right to self-defense. It has threatened stronger action after the Biden administration imposed new sanctions following two tests of a purported hypersonic missile in early January.
In its 2022 annual threat assessment, the U.S. intelligence community warned of North Korea’s “continued development of ICBMs” and its commitment to expanding the country’s nuclear weapons arsenal, as well as continuing ballistic missile research and development.
The intelligence community also warned that North Korea’s “chemical and biological weapons (CBW) capabilities remain a threat” and said U.S. intelligence officials are “concerned that Pyongyang may use such weapons during a conflict or in an unconventional or clandestine attack.”
The intelligence community found that Kim “views nuclear weapons and ICBMs as the ultimate guarantor of his totalitarian and autocratic rule of North Korea and believes that, over time, he will gain international acceptance as a nuclear power.”
“He probably does not view the current level of pressure on his regime, the economic hardships resulting from sanctions and his domestic COVID-19 countermeasures as enough to require a fundamental change in approach,” the intelligence community warned, adding that Kim “aims to achieve prestige as a nuclear power as well as strategic dominance over South Korea.“
