U.S. ATTEMPTS TO CONTACT N. KOREA

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The Biden administration says it has been trying to contact North Korea, but there has been no response thus far. This as top U.S. officials are currently visiting Asian countries. Attention is on how South Korea, the U.S. and Japan will manage to coordinate their Northeast Asia policies.

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The White House has confirmed that the Biden administration has tried to contact North Korea. White House press secretary Jen Psaki said the administration has been using diverse channels to try to hold talks with Pyongyang.

[Soundbite] Jen Psaki(White House Press Pecretary)

Psaki stressed the Biden administration prioritizes diplomacy in its North Korea policy and aims to ease tensions. However, Pyongyang has yet to respond, which is being viewed as a result of severed talks between Pyongyang and Washington for over a year. Meanwhile, U.S. Secretary of State Tony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin have embarked on their tour of South Korea and Japan. They are scheduled to meet with the leaders and their counterparts of the two nations. In a joint article contributed to the Washington Post, the two officials said they were discussing joint strategies on dealing with Pyongyang's nuclear and missile threats. In addition to the North Korea policy, the agenda of the two secretaries' trip also includes the discussion of cooperation among Seoul, Washington and Tokyo, and their stances on Beijing. The U.S. will likely stress a stronger alliance to strongly urge South Korea to assume a clear stance on China.