WASHINGTON — The U.S. is preparing new penalties against North Korea after determining that a pair of purported satellite launches by Kim Jong Un’s regime were used to test systems for a long-anticipated new ICBM.
The restrictions would aim to further block North Korea’s purchase of foreign technologies, a senior Biden administration official told reporters Thursday, without providing more details. The U.S. Indo-Pacific Command was also intensifying surveillance activity in the Yellow Sea and increasing readiness for ballistic-missile defense forces in the region, Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said in a separate statement.
American officials are concerned that North Korean launches on Feb. 26 and March 4 were intended to test elements of an intercontinental ballistic missile that weapons experts believe could be armed with multiple warheads in a bid to overwhelm missile defenses. While North Korea claimed it was “developing a reconnaissance satellite,” Kirby said the U.S. government believed the launches were a step toward testing the missile, which Kim first unveiled in an October 2020 military parade.
