Biden warns N.Korea against escalation after suspected ballistic tests
AFP 1 day ago
AFP -25 March 2021
President Joe Biden warned Thursday the United States
will "respond accordingly" if North Korea escalates its weapons
testing, after Pyongyang fired two suspected ballistic missiles into the sea in
its first substantive provocation of the new US administration.
© - Biden administration officials say they have tried to reach out to
Pyongyang through several channels but have received no response so far© Brendan Smialowski Kim Jong Un and
Donald Trump's extraordinary diplomatic bromance led to headline-grabbing meetings,
but no breakthrough
The nuclear-armed North has a long history of using
weapons tests to ramp up tensions, in a carefully calibrated process to try to
forward its objectives.
Biden said that the United States was "consulting
with our partners and allies," and warned North Korea that "there
will be responses if they choose to escalate. We will respond
accordingly."
"I'm also prepared for some form of diplomacy,
but it has to be conditioned upon the end result of denuclearization," he
added.
Pyongyang had been biding its time since the new
administration took office, not even officially acknowledging its existence
until last week.
But Seoul's joint chiefs of staff said the North fired
two short-range missiles into the Sea of Japan, known as the East Sea in Korea,
from South Hamgyong province.
They travelled 450 kilometres (280 miles) and reached
a maximum altitude of 60 kilometres, the JCS added, and after an emergency
meeting South Korea's National Security Council expressed "deep
concern" at the launch.
© STR Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga said the latest North Korean
launches threatened peace and security
North Korea is banned from developing any ballistic
missiles under UN Security Council resolutions, and is under multiple
international sanctions over its weapons programmes.
Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga was
unequivocal, telling reporters: "North Korea launched two ballistic
missiles."
It had been a year since the last such incident, he
added, saying: "This threatens the peace and security of our country and
the region. It is also a violation of the UN resolution."
Tokyo said they came down outside the waters of
Japan's exclusive economic zone.
Rebuke poured in from Germany, France and Britain
which each condemned the tests as violations of UN Security Council
resolutions.
Britain's Asia minister Nigel Adams also warned North
Korea to refrain from further provocations and "engage in meaningful
negotiations with the US."
- 'Familiar pattern' -
Pyongyang has made rapid progress in its capabilities
under North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, testing missiles capable of reaching the
entire continental United States as tensions mounted in 2017.
Ex-US president Donald Trump's first year in office
was marked by a series of escalating launches, accompanied by a war of words
between him and Kim.
The two then embarked on an extraordinary diplomatic
bromance, holding two headline-grabbing summits in Singapore and Vietnam.
The United States pulled back on some joint military
exercises with South Korea while the North froze intercontinental ballistic
missile tests.
But the February 2019 Hanoi summit broke up over
sanctions relief and what North Korea would be willing to give up in return.
Communications then dried up, despite a third
encounter in the Demilitarized Zone that divides the Korean peninsula, and no
substantive progress was made towards denuclearisation.
"North Korea appears to be returning to a
familiar pattern of using provocations to raise tensions and garner
attention," said Jean Lee of the Wilson Center in Washington.
Pyongyang carried out a series of weapons tests last
year that it called "long-range artillery" but others described as
short-range ballistic missiles.
Trump had been "willing to turn a blind eye to
North Korea's ballistic missile launches as long as they were not tests of
long-range missiles", Lee said.
"But I suspect the Biden administration will
confront any confirmed ballistic missile launches that violate UN Security
Council resolutions."
- Asia outreach -
Thursday's launch comes after Pyongyang fired two
short-range, non-ballistic missiles in a westerly direction towards China at
the weekend, which US officials played down as not a violation of UN
resolutions.
That launch followed joint exercises by the US and
South Korean militaries and a visit to the region by US Secretary of State
Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin to discuss alliance and
security issues.
During their trip to Seoul and Tokyo, Blinken
repeatedly stressed the importance of denuclearising North Korea.
Biden administration officials say they have sought to
reach out to Pyongyang through several channels but have received no response
so far.
They are now finalising a strategy that the White
House will discuss with Japanese and South Korean security officials next week.
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