Kim Jong-un and North Korea’s nuclear arsenal add to Joe Biden’s list of presidential challenges
- Analysts are sceptical that a Biden administration will succeed where previous ones, from both political parties, have failed
- Pyongyang has said it will never abandon its nuclear weapons as long as the US remains ‘hostile’ to it
As a Biden administration takes the reins in Washington, the stakes have never been higher for the US relationship with China and the rest of Asia. In the first part of a post-US-election series, Washington correspondent Jacob Fromer explores how the president-elect will deal with a North Korea that has bolstered its military capabilities, including a new ICBM experts say is Pyongyang’s most threatening yet.
On October 10, about two weeks before the final debate between US President Donald Trump and former vice-president Joe Biden, North Korea unveiled to cheering crowds at a parade in Pyongyang a new intercontinental ballistic missile that experts say may be the country’s biggest yet.
At the debate, when the moderator asked about North Korea’s powerful and growing arsenal, Trump veered away from the question, asserting that his historic meetings over the previous two years with Kim Jong-un, the country’s leader, had prevented a nuclear war with the US.
“We don’t have a war, and I have a good relationship,” Trump said.
“What has he done?” Biden replied. “He’s legitimised North Korea, he’s talked about his good buddy who’s a thug, a thug, and he talks about how we’re better off.”
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North Korea’s new ‘monster’ intercontinental ballistic missiles on show at military parade
Two weeks later, Trump lost the election – though neither he nor Kim has publicly acknowledged it – and on January 20, America’s response to North Korea’s nuclear weapons will be up to Joe Biden.