US President Joe Biden is currently making his first state trip to Asia: it is an important and long-awaited trip, with which Biden wants to strengthen relations with US allies in East Asia, primarily in function of resistance to China.
Biden spent the first few days of the trip, which began on Friday, in South Korea, where he held detailed talks with President Yoon Suk-yeol, agreeing, among other things, to launch new joint military exercises and possibly the use of more American weapons on South Korean territory. The two leaders also spoke extensively about North Korea and the joint actions that should be taken to limit the threat posed by the country.
Towards the end of his stay in South Korea, Biden held an event with the president of Korean automaker Hyundai, which plans to invest in a major electric battery manufacturing plant in the United States.
At the end of the event, when the American President was already walking away from the podium, a reporter asked him a question about the situation with North Korea, and Biden answered with great confidence: “We are ready for anything that concerns Korea. North will be able”. When the reporter then asked if he had a message for North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un, Biden replied, “Hello,” and then after a pause, “Period.”
It is unclear what Biden meant by this laconic answer. On his visit to South Korea, Biden said he might be ready to meet Kim Jong-un, but his government indicated that expectations for dialogue with the North Korean dictator were low: the meetings, the letters and the relationship – in general stormy and quirky Kim had had a chat with former President Donald Trump, which initially looked promising but didn’t accomplish much, and indeed North Korea recently stepped up its missile tests.
In addition, the White House recently asked North Korea to negotiate denuclearization with no response.
It’s therefore possible that with that “hello…period” Biden meant to make a witty response that turned out to be clumsy, but it’s also possible that he meant that the North Korean dictator isn’t much to talk about at the moment With.
After South Korea, Biden’s second leg of his trip is to Japan, where he will meet Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and the heads of government of India and Australia.