North Korea is preparing for its seventh nuclear test, as Kim and China move closer.
SEOUL, South Korea – Ever since President Biden took office, North Korea has been escalating tensions on the Korean Peninsula by testing its ballistic missile programs including its intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs). Experts in the region believe the Biden policy is failing and needs recalibrating, or risk yet another foreign policy headache.
NORTH KOREA MAKING PREPARATIONS FOR POSSIBLE NUCLEAR TEST: OFFICIALS
Since the beginning of this year, North Korea has repeatedly tested its missile programs and has already conducted the 19th round of missile testing on its various ballistic missile weapons. Following the unprecedented rounds of the North’s missile testing, Washington and outside experts have accused the regime of completing all the preparatory steps for its seventh nuclear test.
“North Korea is not at the top of the agenda for this administration and there’s little interest in fundamentally revisiting the outcomes of last year’s policy review based on new developments since then,” said Ankit Panda, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington.
Pandit continued, “Right now, there’s also probably little the administration can do to deter North Korea from proceeding with its military modernization objectives, which Kim Jong Un has committed to,” he said, adding that “the North Koreans are unlikely to reciprocate U.S. interest in talks until they’ve completed their modernization efforts.”
Considering the tensions on the Korean Peninsula due to the North’s missile test with the absence of dialogue between the countries, experts warn that it has demonstrated that the Biden administration’s policy on North Korea has so far been ineffective and cannot tackle North Korea issues practically.
NORTH KOREA FIRES BALLISTIC MISSILE AFTER MAKING NUCLEAR THREATS
Sung-yoon Lee, a professor at the Fletcher School at Tufts University, said that North Korea has not been responsive to the Biden administration’s overtures because “it is not the time [for North Korea] to be engaged [in the dialogue] but to increase its net worth.”
“Like an elite athlete conscious of his performance before the next contract negotiations, North Korea needs to enhance its net value, which means threat capability to the region and the U.S.,” Lee said.
Despite its messages to renew the stalled nuclear talks, North Korea has continuously tested its missile weapons and Kim Jong Un withdrew his self-moratorium on nuclear and ICBM testing in March. During a military parade this April, state media reported Kim saying that while the mission of his nuclear forces was to deter war, “our nukes can never be confined to the single mission of war deterrent even at a time when a situation we are not desirous of at all is created on this land.”
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