Kim Jong-un fires missile as he ignores Biden’s call for talks

Bloomberg

North Korea appears to have launched its first ballistic missile in about two months, after leader Kim Jong-un indicated he was more interested in bolstering his arsenal than returning to stalled nuclear talks with the US.
North Korea fired what appeared to be a ballistic missile from land into waters off its east coast Wednesday, South Korea’s military said. The missile flew about 500 kilometers on a normal trajectory and landed in waters outside of Japan’s exclusive economic zone, officials in Tokyo said. The flight path suggests North Korea launched a short-range ballistic missile.
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida called the launch “extremely regrettable” and said his government would step up surveillance. North Korea’s most powerful ally, China, called on all parties to “act prudently” and stay in the right direction of talks and consultations, Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said at a regular press briefing in Beijing.
The US Indo-Pacific Command said it was consulting closely with allies. “The ballistic missile launch highlights the destabilizing impact of the DPRK’s illicit weapons program,” it said in a statement, referring to North Korea by its formal name. South Korea’s presidential National Security Council convened and said in a statement it was “concerned” about the launch. The group called on North Korea to resume nuclear negotiations, which it said would help “resolve the current strain on inter-Korean relations.”
The missile was launched from Jagang province, South Korea’s military said. The location is near where Pyongyang in September fired off for the first time what it claimed was a hypersonic glide vehicle. Although South Korea said it believed the weapon was still in an “early stage” of development, that test suggested suggesting North Korea had come closer to putting nuclear warheads in high-speed gliders that can evade US missile defenses.
North Korea has a habit of timing its launches to political events and the latest test may have been a rebuke of South Korean President Moon Jae-in’s renewed calls for reconciliation before his term ends in a few months. North Korea fired off its latest missile just hours before Moon attended a ground-breaking ceremony near the border for a rail line he hopes one day would help bring peace and connect the divided peninsula.
North Korea’s last major test came in October, when it said it test-fired a new type of ballistic missile from one of its submarines — a move that potentially reduces the time the US and allied forces in the region would be able to deploy interceptors in the case of an actual attack.
The latest test-firing provided a reminder to President Joe Biden that Kim’s nuclear arsenal remains among the US’s biggest foreign policy challenges. Pyongyang has given a cold shoulder to Washington’s invitation to return to the bargaining table, and last year accused the Biden administration of being “engrossed in confrontation despite its lip-service to dialogue.”
Kim told a policy-setting meeting of his ruling party that his state should focus on easing food shortages and containing Covid, the country’s official media said.