Many world leaders are already preparing for incoming US president Joe Biden to take the reins from Donald Trump, and this may also include North Korea. However, an expert says not to count on Biden to be able to get North Korea to denuclearize, especially at this time, especially with other regional conflicts potentially escalating into world war 3.
Politics lecturer from Oxford University and North Korea expert Edward Howell says that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un may be unable to do anything at the moment when it comes to the subject of the Communist nation’s nuclear arsenal. Howell explained that Kim may be concerned about provoking both the United States and South Korea as a global pandemic is going on, and cases are rising again in the South. When it comes to denuclearization, Howell also touched on whether Biden would return to the approach taken by the Obama administration but said that the president-elect may not be willing to meet with him on a “presidential level.”
“Kim has a South Korea leader who wants to engage on a humanitarian level and a US president who wants to impose sanctions but isn’t going to behave in a bombastic manner like Trump,” explained Howell. “Obama’s strategic patience was seen as not a very positive policy. North Korea viewed it as the US neglecting it.”
Both Biden and North Korea have said disparaging remarks about each other, with the incoming US president calling the North Korean leader a “thug” during his election campaign. Adversely, North Korea has described Biden as a “rabid dog.” Nevertheless, former Biden adviser Frank Januzzi said that the president-elect should reach out to North Korea as soon as possible. This is so as not to allow “feelings of uncertainty” to remain regarding Pyongyang.
Meanwhile, South Korea’s military previously deployed warplanes to intercept 19 Chinese and Russian fighter jets flying close to its airspace. Four Chinese and 15 Russian planes were detected, and the country’s Joint Chiefs of Staff believes that the two countries were conducting a joint military training exercise, but they have yet to determine the exact reason.