The Biden administration had better get some of Nancy Pelosi’s premium ice cream and get Joe up early, because North Korea is freely admitting that they are preparing to attack whenever they feel like it.

Kim Jong-un is unhappy about the military exercises that South Korea and the United States have been doing, so he decided to shoot off a couple of missiles on Sunday.

The official news out of North Korea then announced today that yes, this is all a warning directly from “Little Rocket Man” Kim.

The North’s statement, released on the 77th birthday of its ruling Workers’ Party, is seen as an attempt to buttress a public unity behind Kim as he faces pandemic-related economic hardships, a security threat posed by the boosted U.S.-South Korean military alliance and other difficulties.”

“Through seven times of launching drills of the tactical nuclear operation units, the actual war capabilities … of the nuclear combat forces ready to hit and wipe out the set objects at any location and any time were displayed to the full,”,” the North’s official Korean Central News Agency said.”

KCNA said the missile tests were in response to recent naval drills between U.S. and South Korean forces, which involved the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan.”

Viewing the drills as a military threat, North Korea decided to stage “the simulation of an actual war” to check and improve its war deterrence and send a warning to its enemies, KCNA said.”

Kim said the launches were “an obvious warning” to South Korea and the United States, informing them of North Korea’s nuclear response posture and attack capabilities, KCNA said.”

“The U.S. and the South Korean regime’s steady, intentional and irresponsible acts of escalating the tension will only invite our greater reaction, and we are always and strictly watching the situation crisis,” KCNA said.”

Kim also made it clear again that he has no intentions of resuming the disarmament diplomacy with the United States now and would rather focus on expanding his weapons arsenal.”

“Saying that the enemies have still talked about dialogue and negotiation while posing military threats to us, but we have no content for dialogue with the enemies and felt no necessity to do so,” Kim was quoted as saying. “Above all, we should send a clearer signal to the enemies escalating the regional situation by involving the huge armed forces in any time with more powerful and resolute will and action.”

This follows last week’s firing of a ballistic missile over Japan. Again, we are learning the hard way just what the weakness of Joe Biden on the international stage has cost us. Yes, the talks between Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un were not productive, but was Kim firing missiles over Japan at the same time? The desertion of Afghanistan has hurt the United States in ways we can’t possibly begin to calculate. The bad actors of the world certainly noticed, so we have Putin invading Ukraine, China getting more aggressive with Taiwan, and North Korea threatening our allies.

And this will not be a moment where Joe Biden will say one thing and the White House another, as in the case of Taiwan. If South Korea or Japan ends up on the receiving end of a North Korean missile, we have treaties and agreements in place, and that would be as good as declaring war. But is that what Kim really wants? That depends on how crazy he actually is, and what China ends up saying to him right now.

It’s an open question as to whether or not North Korea launching missiles and making threats helps or hurts China. We all know that China wants to get Taiwan within its control. If North Korea is being openly hostile, China may think that everyone is so distracted that they should make a fast move on Taiwan. But on the other hand, if North Korea is being aggressive, then all eyes are on southeast Asia – and possible extra military reinforcements could be much closer at hand. Meaning that the forces on standby, in case of a missile hitting Japan or South Korea, could also be positioned to back up Taiwan as well. If you were Xi Jinping, which gamble would you take?

And what is Kim Jong-un’s goal in this situation? Keep firing off missiles for funsies and remind everyone that you’re a “tin-plated overbearing swaggering dictator with delusions of godhood” (my apologies to Star Trek for the line)? Possibly. Is he crazy enough to think that he would survive after launching an actual attack? Who knows. That “not knowing” is creating the most amount of difficulty right now. How do you predict the actions of someone who doesn’t think logically or rationally? The only way Kim Jong-un does seem to think is with his ego.

The other thing we just don’t know is the actual state of North Korea itself. The notoriously isolated dictatorship has left few clues to how they weathered COVID-19, except to claim that they “beat” it and then blamed South Korea for giving them the virus in the first place. Is the North Korean military in good enough shape to fight an actual war? We can’t believe any of their propaganda, but neither can we ignore it out of hand.

What we do know is that this is a deadly serious game being played. We also know that Joe Biden is not up to the task of dealing with the diplomatic dancing involved. The problem is that HE is president, not Ron Klain, Susan Rice, or Jill Biden. While the midterms will play a huge part in what happens next, we still have two more years with Joe Biden in the Oval Office. And even if all he does is nap and eat ice cream in the Oval Office for the next two years, we are still in trouble, because the man in front of the curtain is the puppet, and the people behind the curtain will not be held accountable.

Featured image: Pyongyang, North Korea, Kim Il Sun Square, via gfs_mizuta on Pixabay, cropped, Pixabay license