By Andrea Mitchell, Dan De Luce, Abigail Williams and Dareh Gregorian for NBC News
WASHINGTON - North Korea fired at least one missile over the weekend, two US officials confirmed to our sister network NBC News on Tuesday.
This is the
first report of this activity since Joe Biden took office
in January this year.
Officials declined to say what type of missile was fired or where it landed.
It was unclear why the South Korean government had yet to comment on the missile launch.
Officials in Seoul often issue statements after their North Korean neighbors' nuclear or missile tests, and the North Korean government has been known to brag about them as well.
In this photo provided by the North Korean regime, the ruler Kim Jong Un speaks during a conference with city secretaries and district party committees in Pyongyang, North Korea, on Saturday, March 6, 2020. AP
[Anger in the government after a Justice official called North Korea a "criminal syndicate"]
When asked by reporters what he could say about the incident, Biden replied:
"We have learned that nothing much has changed
.
"
A senior administration official told reporters that the type of weapon that was fired over the weekend is not prohibited by United Nations (UN) resolutions.
The weapons display underscores Kim Jong Un's defiant calls to expand a nuclear and missile program.
"While we take all military activity seriously
," the official said, the test falls within Pyongyang's "normal military activity category."
The missile launch, which was first reported by
The Washington Post
, came days after Kim Yo Jong, the sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, issued a statement warning the Biden Administration not to proceed with the planned joint military exercises. with South Korea.
"If they want to sleep in peace for [the] next four years, they better not cause problems in their first step," he
said according to The Associated Press.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin were in South Korea last week as part of their regional tour aimed at boosting America's Asian alliances, and Blinken brought up the history of rights abuse. Pyongyang humans.
[His fear of the North Korean nuclear bomb caused one death. But their conviction has been overturned]
"The authoritarian North Korean regime continues to commit systematic and widespread abuses against its own people," Blinken said at the beginning of his meeting with South Korean Foreign Minister Chung Eui-yong.
"We must support people who demand their fundamental rights and freedoms and against those who repress them."
What the images of Kim Jong-Un hide riding on a sacred mountain
Oct. 16, 201901: 37
He also called North Korea's nuclear and missile programs "a threat to the region and the world."
NBC News Korean affairs analyst Victor Cha said
North Korea appears to be trying to put the new Administration to the test
, and it was anticipated that they would try to pressure Biden after Blinken's trip.
A senior administration official described the military activity as one of "a familiar menu of provocations," adding that "what happened last weekend falls on the lower end of that spectrum."
[Kim Jong-un reappears in public; Trump celebrates seeing him "well and back"]
North Korea has conducted multiple short-range missile tests
in recent years that the Trump Administration dismissed as not considering them important, despite violating United Nations resolutions.
Jalina Porter, a State Department spokeswoman, though she did not refer to the missile launch, said Tuesday that
"the Biden Administration is reviewing its approach to a broader policy toward North Korea
.
"
Officials said the review of US policy toward North Korea was in its "final stages."
National security adviser Jake Sullivan has invited his counterparts from Japan and South Korea to Washington next week for meetings on North Korea.
Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un take a walk after their first meeting at the Sofitel Legend Metropole hotel in Hanoi, Vietnam on February 28, 2019.REUTERS / REUTERS
US-led diplomatic efforts to curb North Korea's nuclear program have been in limbo since February 2019, when a Trump-Kim summit collapsed over disputes over sanctions.
Since then,
Kim has threatened to expand his nuclear arsenal on the
grounds that the United States is hostile to North Korea.
Blinken said last week that Washington had tried to reach North Korea in various ways but had not received a response.
The Biden Administration, Blinken said, seeks to pressure Korea through diplomatic channels and other additional means.
At a Pentagon briefing on Tuesday, Defense spokesman John Kirby declined to comment on the missile launch.