WASHINGTON – When the Justice Department indicted three North Koreans for cyber theft in February and an assistant attorney general labeled North Korea “a criminal union with a flag”, some of President Joe Biden’s top national security advisers irritated, said two senior government officials.
The rhetoric, aides complained to the Justice Department, was not the moderate type that senior officials had agreed a few days earlier to use when speaking publicly about North Korea, and was in danger of antagonizing Pyongyang.
A senior official said that advisers to the National Security Council “were not satisfied with the choice of language” and expressed concern to the Justice Department that this “would provoke North Korea”.
The episode highlights the concern within the White House about the emergence of an impending crisis that the new president has so far not had to face publicly, and exposes tensions within the government about whether it is better to face or ignore the North Korean nuclear threat.
A spokesman for the National Security Council declined to comment, as did the Department of Justice.
Biden’s national security team decided early last month to take a softer public tone towards North Korea after concluding that provoking Pyongyang while the new government’s policy is under review would be against US goals, said a former -and three current senior government officials.
Two of the officials summed up the approach, which was agreed during a so-called meeting of the senior officials’ committee hosted by the National Security Council, as “don’t rock the boat” – particularly when North Korea has yet to provoke the new administration.
“Until we have a better sense of how we are going to address this problem, we are trying not to cause confusion,” said an official.
Several weeks after President Donald Trump took office in 2017, North Korea tested an intermediate-range missile. And just a month after President Barack Obama’s first term, North Korea’s state news agency telegraphed preparations for a launch against which the new government unsuccessfully warned Pyongyang. North Korea did not make such a move during the Biden government, and officials said Biden’s national security advisers would like to keep it that way.
In announcing the North Koreans’ prosecution on February 17, John Demers, the assistant attorney general for national security, could not contain himself. In addition to calling North Korea a “criminal syndicate”, he said his agents “are the world’s leading bank robbers”. The message was not coordinated with the White House, officials said.
Biden has repeatedly promised that during his administration the Justice Department will handle the investigations independently.
The North Korean government’s policy review is not expected to be completed until April or early May, officials said. A senior government official said the review included discussions with Trump administration officials who were involved in North Korean politics. The issue is likely to be part of high-level discussions between Chinese officials and Secretary of State Antony Blinken and national security adviser Jake Sullivan in Alaska this week.
Sung Kim, acting assistant secretary for the State Department for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, said on Friday that Blinken would update Chinese officials on the North Korean government’s policy review and communicate that he is seeking “denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. “.
The White House said on Monday that the government began contacting North Korea in the middle of last month through various diplomatic channels, but did not receive a response. Reuters first reported the range over the weekend. A senior government official said the campaign was intended to “reduce the risk of escalation”.
A former senior government official said that current officials made it particularly clear that Biden does not want to “push big” North Korea’s policy now, in the absence of a major unsolicited concession from Pyongyang, and that the goal of the goal is to “try to contain a provocation that would force your hand” before the policy review is completed and demonstrate to China that the US is making an attempt.
