In recent weeks, North Korea has repeatedly provoked missile tests. During her visit to South Korea, Joe Biden's deputy Kamala Harris takes a sharp stance on the leadership in Pyongyang. The regime of ruler Kim Jong Un threatens peace and stability, says the democrat.
During a visit to the heavily secured border area between South and North Korea, US Vice President Kamala Harris expressed unusually harsh criticism of the leadership in Pyongyang. The so-called demilitarized zone, which has divided the Korean peninsula for a good seven decades, is a clear reminder of the "dramatically different paths" the two sides took.
"In the North we see a brutal dictatorship, rampant human rights abuses and an illegal arms program that threatens peace and stability," Harris said. US President Joe Biden's deputy had previously condemned North Korea's "provocative nuclear rhetoric" and missile tests at a meeting with South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeo in Seoul, the White House said. Harris assured Yoon of her country's support, including "the full breadth of US defense capabilities."
North Korea completed another missile test on Wednesday. In South Korea, it is also assumed that the leadership in Pyongyang is preparing a new nuclear test - the first since 2017 and the seventh since 2006. Because of the tests, a whole series of sanctions have been imposed on North Korea in recent years, which is why the country is internationally is almost completely isolated.
However, ruler Kim Jong Un will not be deterred from his course because he sees North Korea as a threat from the United States. North Korea recently passed a new nuclear weapons law that provides the right to a nuclear first strike in self-defense. The status as a nuclear power was also "irreversibly" anchored in it.
The US is South Korea's protecting power. This is to be underpinned, among other things, on Friday with a joint maneuver with the South Korean and Japanese navies, in which several US warships are taking part.
