WASHINGTON – North Korea fired at least one missile over the weekend, two US officials told NBC News on Tuesday.
It is the first report of such activity since Joe Biden took office as president.
Authorities refused to say what kind of missile was fired or where it landed. It was not clear why the South Korean government has yet to comment on the launch of the missile. The authorities in Seoul often issue statements after nuclear or missile tests from North Korea, and the North Korean government also boasts of them.
Asked by reporters what he could say about the incident, Biden said: “We learned that nothing has changed much.”
A senior government official told reporters that the type of gun fired at the weekend is not covered by United Nations resolutions. “Although we take all military activities seriously,” said the official, the test falls into Pyongyang’s “category of normal military activities”.
The missile launch, first reported by The Washington Post, came days after North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s sister, Kim Yo Jong, issued a statement warning the Biden government not to proceed with planned joint military exercises with South Korea.
“If you want to sleep in peace for [the] next four years, it is better to refrain from causing a bad smell in your first stage, ”she said, according to The Associated Press.
United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin were in South Korea last week as part of their regional trip to boost America’s Asian alliances, and Blinken highlighted the history of Pyongyang of human rights abuses.
“North Korea’s authoritarian regime continues to commit systematic and widespread abuse against its own people,” Blinken said at the beginning of his meeting with South Korean Foreign Minister Chung Eui-yong. “We must support people who demand their fundamental rights and freedoms and against those who repress them.”
He also called North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs “a threat to the region and the world”.
NBC News Korean affairs analyst Victor Cha said it looks like North Korea is trying to test the new government, and it was anticipated that they would try to put some pressure on the government after Blinken’s trip.
A senior government official described military activity as part of “a family menu of provocations”, adding that “what happened last weekend is falling at the bottom end of that spectrum”.
Responding to a reporter’s question as he returned from Ohio to the White House, the president said the Defense Department had called the missile launch “business as usual. There is nothing new about what they did.”
North Korea has conducted several short-range missile tests in recent years, which the Trump administration has deemed unimportant, despite being a violation of United Nations resolutions.
State Department spokesman Jalina Porter, while not referring to the launch of the missile, said on Tuesday that “the Biden government is currently reviewing our approach when it comes to a broader North Korean policy.”
“The United States has a vital interest in deterring North Korea, defending itself against provocation or the use of force, living within reach of its most dangerous weapons programs involves keeping Americans safe and our allies and partners in the region safe” said Porter.
Officials described the United States’ review of North Korean policy as in its “final stages”.
Senior management consulted with Trump officials at some point in their review of what has happened in the past four years. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan invited his Japanese and South Korean counterparts to Washington next week for meetings on North Korea
U.S.-led diplomacy in North Korea’s nuclear program has been in limbo since a February 2019 summit between President Donald Trump and Kim collapsed over disputes over sanctions. Kim has since threatened to increase his nuclear arsenal in protest at what he called US hostility.
Blinken said last week that Washington had contacted North Korea through various channels since mid-February, but has received no response. He said the Biden government was looking at possible “additional pressure measures” and “diplomatic paths”.
At a Pentagon meeting on Tuesday, press secretary John Kirby declined to comment on the launch of the missile.
Mosheh Gains contributed.