As North Korea escalates, Biden plays it cool

A newly developed anti-aircraft missile is seen during a test conducted by the Academy of Defence Science, in this undated photo released on October 1, 2021 by North Korea's Korean Central News Agency (KCNA). — Reuters

DURING their only meeting, Barack Obama warned Donald Trump that North Korea would be the most pressing problem, setting the new president on a whiplash policy course that went from threatening war to wooing young leader Kim Jong Un.

Four years later, President Joe Biden is showing no such urgency – and much more predictability – even as the authoritarian state steps up both rocket launches and rhetoric.