(CNSNews.com) – On a day when North Korea fired the largest-ever barrage of ballistic missiles towards its southern neighbor, U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Linda Thomas-Greenfield reiterated Wednesday that the U.S. was “open to dialogue” with Pyongyang but that the last outreach occurred “during the Trump administration.”
In a fresh provocation on Thursday, the Kim Jong Un regime launched at least three more missiles, including one that the U.S. confirmed was an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM).
“We are very disturbed by these tests. I’m told it’s the largest number in history,” Thomas-Greenfield said in New York of Wednesday’s launches. “So, certainly, we will be asking to engage with other Security Council members on a way forward in dealing with this.”
“When was the last time that the United States reached out to North Korea to try and talk to them?” a reporter asked.
“I think you know that that was during the Trump administration,” the ambassador replied. “But we have made clear since the beginning of this administration that we’re open to dialogue with the government of DPRK. They just need to accept that openness.”
Biden administration officials have stated repeatedly that the U.S. is prepared for dialogue “without preconditions” with the nation formally known as the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK)
“We continue to seek serious and sustained dialogue with the DPRK,” State Department spokesman Ned Price said on Wednesday. “But, as we’ve made no secret of, the DPRK has refused to engage.”
In two barrages on Wednesday, local time, North Korea fired at least 23 ballistic missiles towards South Korea, according to authorities in Seoul – 17 in the morning and six in the afternoon. One landed in the sea less than 40 miles off a city on South Korea’s east coast, the first time since the end of the Korean War in 1953 that a North Korean missile had struck that far south. South Korea responded by launching missiles in the maritime border buffer zone.
On Thursday, Pyongyang fired two short-range missiles and what U.S. officials confirmed was an ICBM.
National Security Council spokesperson Adrienne Watson said the U.S. “strongly condemns” the ICBM launch and that President Biden and his security team were “assessing the situation in close coordination with our allies and partners.”
“This launch, in addition to the launch of multiple other ballistic missiles this week, is a flagrant violation of multiple U.N. Security Council resolutions,” she said.
The State Department called on Pyongyang “to refrain from further provocations and engage in sustained and substantive dialogue.”
In response to Thursday’s launch, the Japanese government ordered residents in the north to take shelter, although it appeared later that the missile had not overflown Japan, with the government saying it had disappeared from radar over the sea between the Korean peninsula and Japan.
The last ICBM launches by the North Koreans took place in March and May. (Last month the regime fired a projectile over Japan, for the first time in five years, but that was a medium-range missile.)
North Korea has said the tests are a response to joint military exercises between South Korea and the U.S.
‘We’re not in a war’
The two ICBM tests last spring were the first since December 2017. The culmination of a series of launches that year, that test prompted a unanimous U.N. Security Council resolution stating that any further ballistic missile or nuclear test would trigger “further significant measures” against North Korea.
Just days later, however, Kim delivered a new year message that offered a policy shift, and in mid-2018 he and President Trump held the first of three face-to-face meetings in a bid to resolve the decades-long nuclear dispute.
The diplomatic effort was boosted by a decision by Kim to declare a moratorium on long-range missile tests.
But the process stalled amid differences over the timing of the lifting of U.S. sanctions. The last Trump-Kim meeting took place along the DMZ dividing the Korean peninsula in June 2019, and working-level talks between the two sides later that year brought no breakthrough.
Despite a lack of progress through 2020, Kim’s moratorium held. When Trump debated his rival for the presidency later in the year, former Vice President Biden accused him of having legitimized Kim by meeting with him.
Trump’s response was that the Obama-Biden administration had “left me a mess” with North Korea, but that as a result of his diplomatic initiative, “we’re not in a war.”
North Korea abandoned the moratorium early this year and has carried out numerous launches since.
After three missiles were launched in late May – shortly after Biden left the region – the U.S. drafted a U.N. Security Council resolution to respond to the provocations, but Russia and China vetoed the measure.
It was the first time in 15 years that the Security Council failed to adopt unanimously a resolution condemning Pyongyang’s nuclear or missile tests.
U.S. officials have warned repeatedly in recent months that Kim may be preparing to carry out what would be the regime’s seventh nuclear test.