We are prepared for anything North Korea can do
, he assured, saying to himself not worried
in the face of a possible nuclear test. Asked by a journalist who asked him if he had a message for North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, the president replied with a laconic: Hello. Period
.
A way of making it known that Washington remains open to dialogue with North Korea, even in the absence of reciprocity. Talks with Pyongyang have stalled since a failed summit in 2019 between Mr Kim and then-US President Donald Trump.
Mr. Biden left South Korea early Sunday afternoon for Japan, another major US ally in the region and the second leg of his first tour of Asia as president.
In Seoul, he met his counterpart Yoon Suk-yeol, a pro-American conservative who came to power in early May. The two Heads of State mentioned an intensification of their joint military exercises in order to counter the sword sounds
by Kim Jong Un.
Countering a “nuclear attack”
Mr. Yoon also referred to the deployment by the United States in his country of strategic means
to counter a nuclear attack
. These means should include fighter planes and missiles, unlike in the past when we only thought of the nuclear umbrella for deterrence
, he clarified.
Any deployment of such weapons, or any intensification of joint military exercises, risks angering Pyongyang, which considers these maneuvers to be dress rehearsals for an invasion.
South Korean intelligence services have warned that North Korea has completed preparations to carry out a nuclear test, which would be the seventh in its history and the first in five years. It is not excluded that this test occurs before the end of the visit of the American president in Asia.
Adding to uncertainties, North Korea, whose population is not vaccinated against Covid-19, is currently facing an epidemic outbreak, with nearly 2.6 million cases and 67 deaths, according to the latest official figures.
Democracies and autocracies
A sign of American ambitions in the region, Mr. Biden mentioned, during a joint press conference with Mr. Yoon, a global competition between democracies and autocracies
and said the Asia-Pacific region was a key battleground in this competition.
We have spoken at length about the need to ensure that (this cooperation) is not limited to the United States, Japan and Korea, but encompasses the whole of the Pacific, the South Pacific and the Indo-Pacific. I think (this trip) is an opportunity
, Mr. Biden said. China is the main rival of the United States in this geopolitical struggle.
Before leaving Seoul, the American president met with the boss of the automaker Hyundai to celebrate the giant’s decision to invest $5.5 billion in an electric vehicle factory in Georgia, in the southern United States.
He also visited American and South Korean soldiers with Mr. Yoon, a sign of truly integrated nature
of the two countries’ economic and military alliance, according to a senior White House official.
In Japan, he will meet Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and Emperor Naruhito on Monday before Tuesday’s Quad meeting, a diplomatic format he is keen to relaunch and which brings together the United States, Japan, India and the United States. ‘Australia. The President will unveil a new US initiative for trade in the region.