we know that the president has offered aid to north korea. he s offered mass vaccines and testing kits. certainly the white house has said they are willing to help out as well. it does appear there are many similarities in the way that the u.s. and south korean lead ers would like to deal with north korea. it s having it high up on the agenda if they decide to carry out a provocation. it will over shadow everything else. john. thank you. appreciate that. to new york now. a former cia analyst who surge in the obama administrations and the director of the asia program at the wilson center. thank you for being with us. thanks for having me on.
this focus on asia despite all of the time and attention he s been spending on the war in ukraine. you saw that play out in the near term when the president in the morning he met with the leaders in finland and sweden. they are trying to join nato and he pivoted and turned to asia. te took flight and still on it now on his way to asia an it s really sort of demonstrative of his broader foreign policy even as the other foreign crisis have popped up around the world. the president really does want to spend a lot of time focusing on this continent both because of the security concerns that exist here in north korea stepping up their prove ocation but also this attempt to counter china. china is sort of ratcheting up tensions in taiwan. all of these areas of concern for allies in this region and the president wants to show that the united states is committed to its alliances so you ll see
u.s. president, joe biden, is on his way to south korea on his first asia trip as president. he will also be visiting japan and meet with leaders of india and australia as well. the asia trip comes later in biden s presidency than he may have liked. he wants to affirm the importance of our indo-pacific alliances. kevin, we ll begin with you. joe biden has been focusing much on the war in ukraine. this an attempt that they can walk and talk and chew gum at the same time. it s meant to reaffirm the u.s. commitment to the key alliance in east asia with south korea and japan and demonstrate that president biden still has
Joe Biden will not visit the demilitarized zone that separates North and South Korea on May 20 as Pyongyang may greet the US president with a nuclear, missile launch, according to the White House.
this is newsday on the bbc. i m mariko 0i, in singapore. 0ur headlines. australians had to the pond saturday to pick their next prime minister. incumbent or his rival, the labour leader, anthony albanese. presidentjoe biden is on his way to south korea on his first asia trip as a us leader. the us senate has approved a nearly $40 billion in aid to ukraine, the largest aid package since russia invaded. meanwhile, the secretary of state is warning the world is facing the greatest global food security crisis of our time security crisis of our time as more than 20 million tonnes of grain is piled up in ukraine because of the war. he s called on russia to allow ships to leave black sea ports including the key city