“North Korea's steadily advancing missile program should not come as a surprise. Kim Jong-un made defense development a major line of effort in his report addressing the eighth Party Congress in January 2021, and specifically mentioned long-range cruise missiles. The cruise missile tests also follow a report by the United Nations that North Korea restarted the plutonium-producing reactor at the Yongbyon nuclear complex this summer. The Biden administration's approach seeking a middle path between the Trump administration's dangerous maximum pressure campaign of 2017 and the subsequent summit pageantry is unlikely to stop North Korea's programs. The longer the United States waits to get serious at the negotiating table, the more technical thresholds and limitations Kim Jong-un will break through, leaving the United States in an ultimately worse-off position.”

by: Eric Gomez