Biden has no intention of meeting N. Korean leader Kim

WASHINGTON • United States President Joe Biden does not intend to meet North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, the White House said on Monday.

Asked if Mr Biden's diplomatic approach to North Korea would include "sitting with President Kim Jong Un" as former president Donald Trump had done, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said: "I think his approach would be quite different and that is not his intention."

North Korea launched a new type of tactical short-range ballistic missile last week, prompting Washington to request a gathering of the United Nations Security Council's sanctions committee, which then criticised the test.

Mr Ri Pyong Chol, secretary of the North's ruling Workers' Party's Central Committee, said the test was self-defensive against threats posed by South Korea and the US with their joint military exercises and advanced weapons.

Mr Biden said last Thursday that the US remained open to diplomacy with North Korea despite the tests, but warned there would be responses if North Korea escalates matters.

North Korea said last Saturday that the Biden administration had taken a wrong first step and revealed "deep-seated hostility" by criticising what it called a self-defensive missile test.

Mr Biden's remarks were an "undisguised encroachment on our state's right to self-defence and provocation", Mr Ri said, adding that Washington might face "something that is not good" if it continues to make "thoughtless remarks".

"We are by no means developing weapons to draw someone's attention or influence his policy," he added.

Mr Trump had three high-profile meetings with Mr Kim and exchanged a series of letters, but relations later grew frosty, and the nuclear-armed state said it would not engage further unless the US dropped its hostile policies.

REUTERS