Does North Korea’s Kim Jong-un have a nuclear surprise for President Biden?

Kim’s nuclear sabre-rattling comes at a fine time, just as the new US leader’s in-tray fills with the messes Trump left in Iran, China and America itself

But with Pyongyang waving a ‘get out of jail card’ from Beijing, Biden may find this is one area where a Trump-era policy – the Singapore spirit – pays off

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North Korean leader Kim Jong-un attends a military parade in Pyongyang. Photo: AFP

Published: 8:00am, 16 Jan 2021Updated: 5:19pm, 16 Jan 2021

As North Korean leader Kim Jong-un vowed to build up a nuclear arsenal and railed against Washington at a rare party congress this week, Park Won-gon, a professor of international relations at Seoul’s Handong Global University was struck most by what was missing.

Bihaekhwa (“denuclearisation”) – a foreign policy priority for global powers in relations with North Korea – was not mentioned once, casting a dark cloud over prospects for progress, even if talks between the United States and North Korea resume under incoming president Joe Biden.

“If and when negotiations resume with the US, the North is likely to demand Cold War style arms control talks to reduce mutual threats from nuclear weapons and accept the North as a nuclear-armed state,” Park speculated, adding that this was unlikely to be acceptable for Washington.

Kim’s unwillingness to back down from his nuclear programme comes even as the country struggles economically under sanctions, natural disasters and the Covid-19 pandemic that led to the closure of its borders with ally China, on which the North relies for most of its trade and international aid.

This has raised questions about what provocations Kim might mount as the new US president takes office and what strategy Biden’s team will adopt to manage North Korea.

At the eight-day congress in Pyongyang, the first since 2016 and only the second since 1980, Kim also vowed to develop intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) with ranges of 15,000km that could reach the US mainland, a nuclear-powered submarine, now reportedly in the testing stage, and various tactical nuclear warheads “to be applied differently depending on the target subjects”. He also described the US as the hermit state’s “biggest enemy”, and added for good measure, “no matter who is in power”.

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