President Biden sends a surprise message to Kim Jong-un while visiting South Korea

“Hello,” Biden said shortly when asked by a reporter what message he wanted to send to leader Kim Jong-un.

According to CNN, Biden’s brief greeting to Kim Jong-un reflects the unsuccessful attempt of the Biden administration to restart the diplomatic process with Pyongyang. So far, the Biden administration’s communications efforts with North Korea have gone largely unanswered. Instead, North Korea has ramped up missile launches and may be preparing for a seventh underground nuclear test, according to CNN.

President Biden said he was prepared for such contingencies during his first visit to Asia.

“We’re prepared for anything North Korea can do. We’ve been – thinking about how we’re going to react to whatever they do. And so I’m not concerned,” he said. Biden said.

Earlier, Mr. Biden said that the US and South Korea have both offered to support North Korea with a Covid-19 vaccine in the context of the country’s first outbreak of Covid-19 but have yet to receive a response. return.

“We have offered to provide a vaccine, not only to North Korea but also to China, and we are always ready to do so immediately. However, we have not received any response.” , Mr. Biden said at a press conference in Seoul on May 21.

North Korea on May 12 announced that the Covid-19 pandemic was spreading in this country with the first cases detected. According to Pyongyang, as of May 21, they recorded nearly 2.5 million people with fever symptoms and 66 cases of death.

Some experts have warned that North Korea, with one of the world’s most backward health care systems, could have a major health crisis. According to experts, many hospitals in North Korea are not fully equipped with machinery systems, lack ICU intensive care units and do not have drugs to treat Covid-19, as well as not have the capacity to examine patients. batch experiment.

Also at a press conference on May 21 with his South Korean counterpart Yoon Suk-yeol in Seoul, President Biden said that the possibility of a meeting with Kim Jong-un “depends on whether he is sincere or not. are not”.

Before that, Biden’s predecessor, former President Donald Trump, met with leader Kim Jong-un three times, but the meetings between the two leaders ultimately did not produce any significant changes to the issue. nuclear issues and US-North Korea relations.

Attempts to dialogue between the US and North Korea then reached an impasse when the two sides failed to reach an agreement on denuclearization and sanctions at the February 2019 summit.