at this hour the u.s. president is holding talks with his newly inaugurated south korean counterpart on his first trip to asia as commander in chief. last hour joe biden participated in a wreath-laying ceremony at the south korean national cemetery. before arriving at the korean ministry of national defense for his meeting with yoon seok-youl. we re expecting them to give their remarks soon. on friday mr. biden says the future of the world will be written in asia, and the region will prove to be critical in the years and decades to come. we re standing on a reflection point in history where the decisions we make today will have far-reaching impacts on the world we leave to our children tomorrow. now, the threat posed by pyongyang is expected to be a main focus of mr. biden s bilateral meeting with south korea s leader. we ve also learned that beijing is holding military drills in the south china sea during this visit. the u.s. says pyongyang could conduct a missile test w
semiconductor plant. so president yoon certainly wants a more comprehensive and a different relationship with the united states than simply the security partnership. now, when it comes to north korea, again, we are still learning what president yoon exactly wants. we know for a fact that he is more hawkish than his predecessor. president moon jae-in really staked his legacy on engagement with north korea, really pushing for some kind of breakthrough, which never came, although there were a number of summits between the two leaders. so what we know from president yoon is that he is more hawkish on north korea. he has, though, been very open to helping pyongyang in the past weeks since pyongyang admitted that they do have a covid outbreak within the country. of course that is completely unvaccinated country as far as we know, one of only two countries in the world, that doesn t have a covid
we ve had, what, you know, during trump administration, by my count, 27 letters exchanged between kim jong-un and donald trump. kim jong-un wants that kind of attention. reporter: former u.s. diplomat joseph yun advises the biden administration to try harder to engage with the north korean regime. otherwise we re going to return to the bad old days of 2017, which is really a crisis atmosphere. reporter: so far, pyongyang has rejected multiple u.s. requests for talks. in the meantime, the biden administration imposed sanctions for the first time last week in response to north korean missile launches. targeting north korean and russian nationals, as well as a russian company accused of helping pyongyang s weapons program. north korea accused washington of gangster-like logic and launched two missiles the very same day.
biden administration to try harder to engage with the north korean regime. otherwise, we re going to return to the bad old days of 2017, which is really a crisis atmosphere. reporter: so far, pyongyang has rejected multiple u.s. requests for talks. in the meantime, the biden administration imposed sanction for the first time last week in response to north korean missile launches, targeting north korean and russian nationals, as well as a russian company accused of helping pyongyang s weapons program. north korea accused washington of gangster-like logic, and launched two missiles the very same day. clearly, the north korean government does not want to be ignored. ivan watson, cnn, hong kong. still ahead here on cnn newsroom, winter weather warnings in place for millions of americans in the southern u.s. the latest forecast, coming up.
to achieve. reports indicate talks between the u.s. and the dprk may currently be at a stalemate. comes as nbc news has learned that china loosens restrictions on trade with north korea undercutting u.n. sanctions. the u.s. treasury sanctioned multiple entities for helping pyongyang avoid those sanctions. president trump s desire to rush into a meeting with kim jong-un caused china to fear a loss of regional influence. the former senior state department official adds, quote, the trump admin strapistration m pressure is now at best minimum pressure. next big thing, i wonder what it could be. a white house in crisis goes from bad to worse. the latest on that anonymous