President Biden said Saturday that any potential meeting with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un would “depend on whether he was sincere and whether he was serious.”
Biden’s comment came in response to a question at a joint press conference in Seoul with South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol.
While the Biden administration has said it is open to talks with North Korea with no preconditions, North Korean officials have declined to meet. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters on Thursday that Pyongyang hasn’t shown any willingness to connect with the administration since Biden took office, according to Bloomberg.
Former President Trump met with Kim three times during his presidency, though that was atypical as U.S. presidents have not typically met with North Korean leaders in the past.
Sullivan told reporters earlier this week that it is a “genuine possibility” that North Korea could launch an intercontinental ballistic missile or perform a nuclear test during or close to Biden’s four-day trip to South Korea and Japan. The country has test-fired several ballistic missiles this year but has not conducted a nuclear test since 2017, The Hill reported.
Meanwhile, Biden and Yoon agreed Saturday to “initiate discussions to expand the scope and scale of combined military exercises and training on and around the Korean Peninsula,” the leaders said in a joint statement after their meeting in Seoul.
The pair agreed to “deploy strategic U.S. military assets in a timely and coordinated manner” and to “identify new or additional steps to reinforce deterrence,” the statement said.
Biden said the U.S. is committed to helping defend South Korea “using the full range of U.S. defense capabilities, including nuclear, conventional, and missile defense capabilities,” the statement added.
“President Yoon and President Biden reiterate their common goal of the complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula and agree to further strengthen the airtight coordination to this end,” statement said. “The two Presidents share the view that the DPRK’s nuclear program presents a grave threat not only to peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula but also the rest of Asia and the world.”