Why Biden's comments have 'little to do' with North Korea's weapons strategy

Joe Biden.
(Image credit: JIM WATSON/AFP via Getty Images)

President Biden appeared to anger North Korea this week when he criticized Pyongyang's most recent ballistic missiles test, the first such action the country has taken since the White House transition in January. Regardless of Biden's comments, though, North Korea seems to have its strategy set in place.

In a statement, Ri Pyong Chol, a senior military adviser to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said Biden's remarks — which were widely seen as standard fare that included an unspecific promise that the United States "will respond accordingly" if Pyongyang decides to "escalate" — were "thoughtless" and "gangster-like." The Biden administration, he said, "took its first wrong step."

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Tim O'Donnell

Tim is a staff writer at The Week and has contributed to Bedford and Bowery and The New York Transatlantic. He is a graduate of Occidental College and NYU's journalism school. Tim enjoys writing about baseball, Europe, and extinct megafauna. He lives in New York City.