Political | Process

“They’ve already done two intercontinental ballistic missile tests earlier this year and we’ve been seeing tunneling activity preparing for a nuclear test,” Bruce Klingner, senior research fellow at The Heritage Foundation, told CNBC’s “Street Signs Asia” on Friday. 

He added that such a test would be intended to “overshadow” Biden’s trip.

The White House has been bracing itself for such a move by North Korea during Biden’s first Asia visit as president.

“Our intelligence does reflect the genuine possibility there will be either a missile test or a nuclear test or both,” U.S. national security advisor Jake Sullivan told reporters on Wednesday, a day before Biden departed for Asia.

Biden arrived in Seoul on Friday for a three-day visit in South Korea, and will travel to Tokyo, Japan on Sunday.

He is attending a Quad summit hosted by Japan, where leaders of the four-nation Quadrilateral Security Dialogue are meeting. It is a strategic grouping made up of the U.S., Australia, Japan and India, aimed at countering China’s looming military presence in the Indo-Pacific.

The Heritage Foundation’s Klingner said while the U.S. would like to talk to Pyongyang on a range of issues including denuclearization, North Korea was unwilling to engage with either the U.S. or South Korea at this stage.

“They may choose to [conduct the tests] during Biden’s trip to divert attention away from the objectives [of the trip] … in both countries,” he said, adding it’s also calculated to try to force Biden in having to respond to the North Korean action.

Klingner, also a former CIA officer, said that by a test by North Korea would be an attempt to signal that the isolated country is “strong” despite recent reports that it is battling its first reported Covid-19 outbreak