North Korea warns US of ‘very grave situation’ over Biden speech

North Korea on Sunday warned the United States will face “a very grave situation” because President Joe Biden “made a big blunder” in his recent speech by calling the North a security threat and revealing his intent to maintain a hostile policy towards it.

In his first address to Congress, Mr Biden last week called North Korea and Iran’s nuclear programmes “a serious threat to America’s security and world security” and said he would work with allies to address those problems through diplomacy and stern deterrence.

“It is certain that the US chief executive made a big blunder in the light of the present-day viewpoint,” Mr Kwon said. “Now that the keynote of the US new DPRK policy has become clear, we will be compelled to press for corresponding measures, and with time the US will find itself in a very grave situation.”

Mr Kwon still did not specify what steps North Korea would take, and his statement could be seen as an effort to apply pressure on the the Biden administration as it shapes its North Korea policy.

Press secretary Jen Psaki did not detail findings of the review, but suggested the administration would seek a middle ground between Donald Trump’s “grand bargain” and Barack Obama’s “strategic patience” approaches.

After performing a series of high-profile nuclear and missile tests in 2016-17, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un launched summit diplomacy with Mr Trump on the future of his growing nuclear arsenal. But that diplomacy has been stalled for about two years over differences in how much sanctions relief North Korea could win in return for limited denuclearisation steps.

In January, Mr Kim threatened to enlarge his nuclear arsenal and build more high-tech weapons targeting the US mainland, saying the fate of bilateral ties would depend on whether it abandons its hostile policy.