Under former President Donald Trump, North Korean Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un tried to get one over on him a few times, but it never worked. That’s because Trump made crystal clear that if North Korea wanted to dance, then the United States would be obliged to dance with them.
That seems not to be the case under President Joe Biden’s administration, who are quickly proving not only to be failing America on national stage, but also on a global diplomacy level, as North Korea has tested a number of missiles and projectiles over the past few weeks, including a recent test of one of their more advanced versions.
The Biden administration has barely said a word about it.
Reuters has the story:
North Korea launched a “newly developed new-type tactical guided projectile” on Thursday, state news agency KCNA reported on Friday, as the United States condemned the launches and warned of a threat to international peace and security.
Stop the censors, sign up to get today’s top stories delivered right to your inbox
The launches, which were the country’s first ballistic missile tests in nearly a year, underscored steady progress in its weapons program amid stalled denuclearisation talks with the United States.
President Joe Biden said on Thursday the United States remained open to diplomacy with North Korea despite its missile tests this week, but warned there would be responses if North Korea escalates matters.
The State Department later condemned the ballistic missile launches as destabilizing. “These launches violate multiple U.N. Security Council resolutions and threaten the region and the broader international community,” a State Department spokesman said.
The new weapon is based on existing technology that was improved to carry a 2.5-ton warhead, KCNA reported.
KCNA said the two weapons accurately struck a target 600 km (373 miles) off North Korea’s east coast, which conflicts with estimates by South Korean and Japanese authorities who said the missiles flew about 420-450 km.
“The development of this weapon system is of great significance in bolstering up the military power of the country and deterring all sorts of military threats,” Ri Pyong Chol, the senior leader who oversaw the test, said, according to KCNA.
Photos released by state media showed a black-and-white painted missile blasting off from a military launch vehicle.
Missile specialists at the California-based James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies (CNS) said it appeared to be a missile that was unveiled at a major military parade in Pyongyang in October.
If it is, then Thursday’s missiles were likely an improved and probably stretched variant of the previously tested KN-23 missile with “a really big warhead,” said Jeffrey Lewis, of CNS.
The KN-23 is a North Korean short-range ballistic missile (SRBM) first tested in May 2019, with visual similarity to Russia’s Iskander-M SRBM, prompting analysts to debate whether it was developed with foreign help.
The new missile’s 2.5-ton warhead may be a response to South Korea’s announcement in August that its latest Hyunmoo-4 SRBM had “the largest payload in the world” at 2 tons, Lewis said.
The SRBMs developed by North Korea are designed to defeat missile defenses and conduct a precision strike in South Korea, analysts say.
ARTICLE SOURCE : thefederalistpapers.org
