North Korea’s failing foreign policy

COMMENTARY / World

North Korea’s failing foreign policy

Nuclear weapons have yet to accomplish Pyongyang’s objectives

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and his daughter pose for a photo with scientists, engineers and military personnel involved in the test-firing of the country’s new Hwasong-17 intercontinental ballistic missile. | KCNA / VIA REUTERS

By Denny Roy
Contributing writer

Feb 8, 2023

This year has already brought a familiar series of events on the Korean Peninsula.

U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin visited Seoul and announced an expansion of U.S.-South Korea joint military exercises.

U.S. and South Korean aircraft, including stealth fighters and a B-1 bomber, held bilateral training on Feb. 1. The next day, a North Korean government spokesperson said “the DPRK (Democratic People’s Republic of Korea) is not interested in any contact or dialogue with the U.S. as long as it pursues its hostile policy and confrontational line.”