Intelligence agencies in the United States and South Korea think that North Korea is preparing to test a new intercontinental ballistic missile and a nuclear weapon soon. Kim Jong-un, on the other hand, may not want to use his "provocations" while Joe Biden is in Asia.
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| [Kim Jong-un] |
Is Kim Jong-un up to the task? US and South Korean security agencies have recently confirmed that the North Korean army is on the march as President Joe Biden starts his first big diplomatic visit to Asia on Friday in Seoul, South Korea. testing a number of strong weapons systems that it supposedly does not have the right to employ, in accordance with international sanctions.
This would have been detected by the American spy aircraft, RC-135S Cobra Ball, which took out from Kadena in Okinawa and flew over the Sea of Japan, near the North Korean coast, on Thursday morning. ICBMs are theoretically capable of transporting nuclear warheads across thousands of kilometers.
Agents of the South Korean National Intelligence Service (NIS) disclosed on Thursday in a confidential briefing to parliamentarians that they were also convinced that Pyongyang would soon proceed, after a hiatus of almost five years, to a new nuclear test at its site in Punggye-ri, which is located in the northeastern part of the country. This information confirmed the information that was previously shared by the North Korean government. According to statements made by MK Ha Tae-keung to the media, "all preparations for this test have now been finished." In recent weeks, satellite images had shown intense activity on the base that Kim Jong-un agreed to dismantle in 2018 when he tried to negotiate with Donald Trump an easing of the economic sanctions that are suffocating his country. Kim Jong-un had agreed to dismantle the base in order to gain leverage in his negotiations with Trump.
The national security advisor for the White House, Jake Sullivan, said that the Biden team was "preparing for all possibilities" before to travelling to Seoul and Tokyo with US President on their Asian trip. Sullivan was traveling with US President. An aide to Joe Biden informed him that the United States is "clearly ready to change our military posture if required" in order to guarantee that the country can "provide protection and deterrence for our friends in the area."
If Washington and Seoul believe that Pyongyang could pull off a "coup de brilliance" very soon, despite the apparent severity of the Covid-19 epidemic on its territory, several experts point out that the North Korean regime has not, for the most part, ever tested powerful weapons while US presidents were visiting the region. This is despite the fact that the epidemic appears to be quite severe on North Korean territory.
A provocation of this kind may even be seen as being detrimental from Kim Jong-perspective. un's It would run the danger of provoking the administration of Vice President Joe Biden, who already does not seem to have much motivation to begin bilateral conversations with North Korea. Above all else, it would irritate China, the regime's final friend. China does not want to find itself caught up in a fresh diplomatic crisis since it is now dealing with a hard downturn in its development and an uphill struggle against the COVID.