- US officials prepare for possible ‘provocative’ actions by North Korea
- It comes as Kim Jung-Un is preparing to possibly host Vladimir Putin.
- North Korea has contributed to Moscow’s thirst for ammunition amid the war in Ukraine
US officials are preparing for North Korea to take increasingly “provocative” actions in the run-up to the November election, as Pyongyang cements its long-standing ties with Moscow.
‘We have no doubt that North Korea will be provocative this year. “It’s just a question of how escalated it is,” a US intelligence official said. NBC News.
It comes in anticipation of a likely meeting between North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un and Russian President Vladimir Putin, who was re-elected this year with 87 percent of the vote after more than two decades in power.
Some of the escalation actions, whatever they may be, are expected to come closer to the US elections, according to intelligence officials.
Biden administration officials are raising concerns about the alliance, which comes amid an embrace between U.S. rivals Russia and China in the run-up to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The warning has echoes of 2016, when U.S. officials accused Russia of interfering in the election. Special counsel Robert Mueller indicted 34 people, including members of a Kremlin-linked Russian troll farm, after his two-year investigation.
US intelligence fears that North Korea is planning increasingly provocative actions in the weeks leading up to the US elections in November.
US officials anticipate that the volatile Kim will sign a deal to increase military transfers from Russia, according to the report.
The White House said in January that Russia used short-range ballistic missiles made in North Korea to attack Ukraine, in just the latest example of their cooperation.
Among the concerns of US intelligence officials is that Putin’s Russia is giving North Korea subnuclear nuclear technology, in addition to helping its decades-long attempt to perfect ballistic missile technology.
In return, Pyongyang has been supplying weapons to Russia to help in its ongoing war in Ukraine.
Another concern is that Russia could help North Korea advance its effort to build a submarine that can launch nuclear-armed missiles, a threat that would allow it to extend its threat to U.S. ally Japan and others across the region. .
The concerns come as the White House has repeatedly pressured China not to aid the Russian invasion with its own weapons trove.
The United States has been trying for decades to contain North Korea’s missile technology. This photo taken on April 19, 2024 and published by North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on April 20, 2024 shows the DPRK Missile Administration conducting a test launch of the new type of anti-aircraft missiles “Pyoljji-1-2”. in the West Korean Sea
Russian President Vladimir Putin expected to visit Pyongyang soon
President Joe Biden has based his reelection in part on protecting democracies and confronting Russian aggression.
“We have recently been expressing, in quite urgent terms, our concern about what China is doing to fuel Russia’s war machine: not by providing weapons directly, but by providing inputs to Russia’s defense industrial base,” said the Adviser to White House Homeland Security, Jake Sullivan. reporters at the White House this week.
‘That’s happening. That’s something that worries us,’ she stated.
Any volatile actions by North Korea could help amplify Donald Trump’s relentless attacks on President Biden’s foreign policy, which Trump has called a disaster.
Trump himself has boasted about how he ended up exchanging “love letters” with Kim after warning early in his presidency that North Korea would be met with “fire and fury” if it made any more threats to the United States.
