By David Brunnstrom

WASHINGTON (Reuters] – U.S. Vice President Joe Biden has announced that his new Indo-Pacific policy chief will be directing the administration’s approach to North Korea, its missile and nuclear programs and its future policies.

Kurt Campbell stated that the Obama administration’s delay saw North Korean provocative steps, “that effectively stopped any chance of engagement.”

Low-profile summits held between North Korean leader Kim Jong Un (ex-President Donald Trump) did not produce much.

Biden, however, left North Korea out of his February 2021 foreign policy speech. Then, just hours later, at his second news conference, the president announced that North Korea had launched another tactical missile to highlight its military advancements.

Biden said that North Korea was his top foreign policy issue at the time. However, it would be another month before Biden settled on a strategy. He remained open to diplomacy, but rejected the notion of offering Pyongyang the sanctions relief it needed before it began to take steps towards dismantling its nuclear weapons program.

North Korea said this was evidence of U.S. “hostile intent” and embarked on a unprecedented wave of missile tests, which culminated with what seems to have been the largest intercontinental ballistic missile launch ever.

Biden is currently occupied by the counter-Russian invasion of Ukraine. He also has to deal with Kim’s promise to create a system that can evade U.S. missile defences.

However, it will prove to be much more challenging than the 2017 launch. This is because of the fact that the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) has the power, as well as the other world powers, of imposing sanctions against North Korea.

North Korea’s Kim engaged in unprecedented engagement with Trump following his 2017 ICBM testing. However, this did little to reverse Pyongyangs weapons program.

Jenny Town from the North Korea Project, 38 North stated that “The Biden Administration… had an opportunity to try to get off to a better start with the North Koreans.”

There could have been confidence building steps that would have led to an end of the Korean War in 1950-53 and the removal of obstacles for humanitarian assistance. This should have happened when Trump’s relations began warming.

Town declared, “But now the moment is over.” The U.N. Security Council is effectively paralyzed. This means that the tools available to us – including to create ramps for escalation – are more restricted.

Sue Mi Terry (an ex-CIA Korea analyst, now working with Washington’s Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), stated that “We are not in a favorable spot… This was completely predictable.” She also said there might be more to come from North Korean testing.

“This… is the best time, because the whole of the world is distracted and there are going to be no actual consequences,” she stated. “What will the UNSC do?” Are Russia and China willing to assist?

REGARDLESS OF BOMB TESTS, DO NOT BE ANGRY

Kim could also resume tests for nuclear bombs, something that is particularly concerning since 2017.

Victor Cha is a former White House North Korea expert and now works with CSIS. He said that satellite imagery has shown increased activity at North Korea’s Punggye Ri nuclear testing site. He said that while it wasn’t possible to know exactly what this meant, “any activity there was not a sign.”

Matt Pottinger served as Trump’s deputy national security advisor and said that North Korea would have felt empowered by the Biden administration’s “appeasement” Iran’s nuclear program.

Ex-Obama administration officials, who are close to current administration officials, defended the administration’s approach.

Obama’s East Asia top diplomat Daniel Russel stated that there are no viable options to deal with North Korea. He also said Trump’s 2018 and 2019 “ill-advised summits” with Kim had “eased the pressure on North Korea, but not restraining their nuclear or missile programs.”

He said that the ICBM launched just now was “certainly developed and manufactured while Kim and Trump were exchanging love notes'”, referring to letters between them.

Abraham Denmark was the top Pentagon official in East Asia for Obama. He argued that Biden’s efforts to consolidate U.S. Alliances and the leadership of international responses to Russia’s invasion Ukraine meant that “deterrence against North Korean aggressiveness is much stronger today.”

He said Kim’s calculations were not only driven by Washington, and the demonstration of a more credible ICBM capability could be aimed signaling strength and resolve in response to incoming South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol, who has declared his intention to adopt a much harder line against Pyongyang and strengthen Seoul’s U.S. alliance.