US President arrives in Japan after warning of North Korea threat

The US President has just visited South Korea and will have his next stop in Japan. Photo: AFP

Mr Biden has just left South Korea, where he and President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol held a series of meetings, including discussions on expanded military exercises to counter what they see as a threat from North Korean leader Kim Jong-un's regime.

As US and South Korean officials warned that Kim Jong-un could escalate tensions with a nuclear weapons test while Biden was in the region, the US president said the democratic allies needed to deepen ties.

At a joint press conference with Mr. Yoon, Mr. Biden mentioned “the global competition between democracies and autocracies,” and affirmed that the Asia-Pacific region is an important battleground.

“We’ve talked a lot about the need to expand not just the United States, Japan and South Korea, but the entire Pacific and the South Pacific and the Indo-Pacific. I think this is an opportunity,” the US president said.

While viewing China as America's main rival in this fight, Mr. Biden also wanted to emphasize the great challenge from Russia when he personally signed the $40 billion aid bill for Ukraine on May 21 in Seoul instead of waiting until returning to Washington next week.

Before leaving South Korea, Mr. Biden met with the Chairman of Hyundai, congratulating the auto giant's decision to invest $5.5 billion in an electric vehicle factory in the southern US state of Georgia.

He also met with Mr. Yoon and US and South Korean military personnel, a schedule that a senior White House official said could “reflect the truly integrated nature” of the two countries’ military and economic alliance.

In Japan, Mr. Biden will meet Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and Emperor Naruhito on May 23, before attending the Quad summit on May 24, with the leaders of Australia, India and Japan.

Also on May 23, Mr. Biden will announce a new US initiative on regional trade, called the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework for Prosperity.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. Photo: KCNA

“North Korea Threat”

In a statement released on May 21, Mr. Biden and Mr. Yoon said that, “given the growing threat” from North Korea, they “agreed to begin discussions on expanding the scope and scale of combined military exercises and training on and around the Korean Peninsula.”

The possibility of increased US-South Korea joint military exercises is said to be in response to North Korea's weapons tests this year, as well as growing concerns about the possibility of another missile launch.

Elected on a positive pro-American message, President Yoon said that he and Mr. Biden “discussed whether it is necessary to conduct various types of joint exercises to prepare for the possibility of a nuclear strike.”

He also made it clear that it is necessary to "have fighter jets and missiles instead of thinking only of the nuclear umbrella for deterrence like in the past."

Any move to increase forces or expand the scale of joint US-South Korean military exercises is likely to anger Pyongyang, which views such exercises as preparations for invasion.