White House Says U.S. Has Reached Out To North Korea, Received No Response

It seems the Biden administration has been making efforts to open dialog with North Korea to no avail.

North Korea so far has rebuffed entreaties from the United States to engage in dialog, the White House said on Monday.

Nuclear-armed North Korea walked away from diplomacy with former President Trump even though he and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un had three high-profile summit meetings and exchanged a series of letters.

Trump had refused North Korean entreaties to relax sanctions against Pyongyang unless Kim took steps to dismantle his nuclear program, which he refused to do.

Biden White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki told reporters that U.S. officials have reached out to North Korea through a number of channels since taking office nearly two months ago.

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“Our goal is to reduce the risk of escalation. But to date we have not received any response,” Psaki said.

She did not elaborate on what type of escalation the United States was concerned about. North Korea conducted six nuclear tests between 2006 and 2017.

North Korea has been reasonably quiet for quite some time. It is perplexing why Biden is intent on engaging with Kim at this time. There is a lot to be said to the old adage, “Let sleeping dogs lie.”

Still Biden is nosing around…

Psaki said the administration was consulting former U.S. government officials who have been involved in North Korea policy from past administrations while also seeking input from allies Japan and South Korea.

“This follows over a year without active dialog with North Korea despite multiple attempts by the U.S. to engage…You can all anticipate that there will be a continued expansion of engagement with partners and allies in the region,” she said.

A senior Biden administration official told Reuters on Saturday there had been efforts to reach out to the North Korean government through several channels starting in mid-February.

The Pentagon expressed concern early this month about a U.N. report indicating possible reprocessing of nuclear fuel for bombs by North Korea.

I am sure Biden will be as effective with North Korea as he has been with China.