The White House is braced for a North Korean missile or nuclear test while Joe Biden is on a trip to
South Korea and Japan, which begins on Thursday. The national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, told reporters on Wednesday: “Our intelligence does reflect the genuine possibility that there will be either a further missile test, including long-range missile test, or a nuclear test, or frankly both in the days leading into, on or after the president’s trip to the region. “We are preparing for all contingencies, including the possibility that such a provocation would occur while we are in Korea or in
Japan,” Sullivan added.
Biden’s trip is intended in part to signal that he has not forgotten about US strategic interests in the Indo-Pacific despite the focus since February on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
“The message we’re trying to send on this trip is a message of an affirmative vision of what the world can look like, if the democracies and open societies of the world stand together to shape the rules of the road, to define the security architecture of the region to reinforce strong, powerful historic alliances,” Sullivan said.
