NEW YORK. North Korea returns to challenge the United States and the international community, creating the first crisis for President Biden. Yesterday Pyongyang launched two ballistic missiles, which fell into the sea between the peninsula and Japan.
This provocation follows that of the weekend, when the regime led by Kim fired two short-range cruise missiles. The analysts’ interpretation is that this is a warning related to the annual joint exercises conducted by the American and South Korean armed forces, but in general it is a signal sent to the new head of the White House, to impose on his attention the dissatisfaction of Korea. North due to the freezing of dialogue following the three meetings with his predecessor Trump.
The missiles launched over the weekend were short-range and did not violate UN resolutions. So Washington had decided to minimize them, so as not to fuel Pyonyang’s provocations. Biden himself said that the gesture changed nothing. The result, however, was the opposite. Yesterday Kim made his voice again, but this time by launching two ballistic missiles, which traveled for a length of 450 kilometers, at a height of about 100 kilometers. They did not enter Tokyo’s territorial waters, but according to Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga they nevertheless “threatened the peace and security of Japan and the region, and violated UN resolutions”.
In recent days, North Korea had warned the US, saying that if they wanted stability they would have to avoid joint exercises with Seoul, which have always been seen as the dress rehearsal of a possible invasion. So over the weekend the first provocation arrived, and given the general silence, the second one took place yesterday.
Kim had hoped to obtain an agreement from Trump that would normalize relations, effectively accepting that his country has become a nuclear power and reopening economic exchanges, in exchange for a commitment not to develop beyond the arsenal. With the failure of the Hanoi summit, and the subsequent meeting in the demilitarized zone between North and South, the dialogue was frozen.
After winning the November election, Biden contacted Kim informally, but received no replies. It then initiated a review of bilateral relations, to decide which strategy to adopt now. Pyongyang, however, has decided to anticipate it, immediately putting the question on the table in its own way, perhaps even taking advantage of the growing contrasts between the US and China, which guarantee Beijing’s support. In this way, however, there is a risk of returning to the tensions of the Obama administration, when a military confrontation seemed very close, if not inevitable.
North Korea has launched two ballistic missiles. A senior US official told CNN. The analysis of the military apparatus and American intelligence is underway to understand what kind of missiles have been launched: it is not known whether they are short, medium or long range missiles. South Korea announced in the evening the launch of an unidentified missile that crashed into the sea between the Korean peninsula and Japan.