North Korea in the News 2021

 My article on North Korea was picked up by Korean media. Been well received, too.

https://www.hapskorea.com/biden-kim-jong-un-and-north-korea-back-in-the-news/

With re-occurring global COVID concerns, and for the United States a disputed election, and recovery plans like the Biden Economic Relief program, we have not heard much in the mainstream media about North Korea. Not until this week, when North Korea broke months of silence in warnings regarding the recent scaled-down military exercises conducted by the United States. and South Korea, and U.S Secretary of State Tony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd traveling to Asia-Pacific for meetings with Japanese and South Korean counterparts.

North Korea was certainly a top news story following a 2018 summit in Singapore between then-President Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un, and followed by two more meetings: Hanoi in February 2019, and Panmunjom on the border between the Koreas in July 2019.  To some experts, these meetings are now seen largely as photo ops as opposed to meaningful steps toward achieving peace and denuclearization on the Korean peninsula.

Enter the Pandemic, and at least for 2020, we saw little change in U.S.-North Korea relations. On the United States side, the Trump administration all but shifted focus away from North Korea, except to claim success and credit in de-escalating tensions as part of President Trump’s re-election campaign.

My thought, as in past years, is that North Korea was waiting to see the results of the U.S. presidential election and then plot their strategy.

The Biden presidency begins as Kim Jong Un faces perhaps the toughest moment of his nine-year rule.

North Korea’s battered economy has suffered further amid pandemic border closures while Kim Jong Un’s previous summits with Trump failed to lift the crippling sanctions.

Unites States intelligence has concerns, too, that North Korea could be preparing to carry out their first weapons test since President Biden came into office.

North Korea traditionally has done some kind of strongly provocative action—aka ICBM missile launches and/or nuclear testing—early in the new leadership of both the U.S. and South Korea.

As for the Biden strategy, senior U.S. officials are staying with past policy and have reaffirmed their commitment to the “complete denuclearization of North Korea.”

We can also expect new rounds of threats and warnings from North Korea. More so, as the United States is reaffirming commitments in the region and to our South Korean allies. Not to mention, as U.S. top officials draw attention to the ongoing North Korea security challenges and their systemic and widespread abuses against its own people.

###