WASHINGTON • North Korea has not responded to behind-the-scenes diplomatic outreach since mid-last month by United States President Joe Biden's administration, a senior Biden administration official told Reuters on Saturday.
The disclosure of the so-far unsuccessful outreach, which has not been previously reported, raises questions about how Mr Biden will address mounting tensions with Pyongyang over its nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programmes.
It also adds a new dimension to a visit that the US' top diplomat Antony Blinken and Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin will make this week to South Korea and Japan, where concerns over North Korea's nuclear arsenal are expected to be high on the agenda.
The senior Biden administration official, speaking on condition of anonymity, offered few details about the diplomatic push. But the official said there had been efforts to reach out to the North Korean government "through several channels starting in mid-February, including in New York".
"To date, we have not received any response from Pyongyang," the official said.
North Korea's mission to the United Nations did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The Biden administration has so far been cautious in publicly describing its approach to North Korea, saying it is carrying out a comprehensive policy review following former president Donald Trump's unprecedented engagement with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. Mr Trump's efforts failed to persuade North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons.
The Biden administration official said it appeared there had been no active dialogue between the US and North Korea for more than a year, including at the end of the Trump administration, "despite multiple attempts during that time by the United States to engage".
The official declined to speculate about how the silence from Pyongyang would impact the Biden administration's North Korea policy review, which was expected to be completed in the coming weeks.
During his election campaign, Mr Biden described Mr Kim as a "thug" and said he would meet him only "on the condition that he would agree that he would be drawing down his nuclear capacity".
Secretary of State Blinken has held out the possibility of additional sanctions, in coordination with allies, to press North Korea to denuclearise. Sanctions have so far failed to convince Mr Kim to give up his nuclear weapons.
Mr Blinken is slated to host the first face-to-face discussions between senior Biden administration and Chinese officials on Thursday in Alaska. The Trump administration had accused China of failing to enforce sanctions against North Korea.
A confidential UN report found that North Korea maintained and developed its nuclear and ballistic missile programmes throughout last year, in violation of international sanctions, helping fund them with some US$300 million (S$403 million) stolen through cyberhacks.
The report by independent sanctions monitors said Pyongyang "produced fissile material, maintained nuclear facilities and upgraded its ballistic missile infrastructure" while continuing to seek material and technology for those programmes from abroad.
REUTERS
