North Korea tested its first ballistic missiles since President Joe Biden took office on Thursday. Though nuclear talks remain stalled, the move is intended to demonstrate its military capability and raise pressure on Washington.

Anxiety spreads across the area as a result of this. These tests, according to Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga, endanger peace and security in Japan and the region.

After meeting with his Russian counterpart in Seoul, South Korean Foreign Minister Chung Eui-Yong expressed his strong concern. North Korea has a tradition of using missile tests to provoke new US administrations. The aim is to persuade the Americans to return to the bargaining table.

In comparison to the nuclear and intercontinental missile tests in 2017, which sparked fears of war before the North turned to diplomacy with the Trump administration in 2018. Its Thursday's testings appeared to be a calculated provocation.

The North will gradually raise its military shows to increase its negotiating power as it seeks to resume stalled talks aimed at using nuclear weapons for desperately needed economic benefits.

A senior Biden administration official told Reuters that North Korea has not responded to behind-the-scenes diplomatic outreach by President Joe Biden's administration since mid-February, including Pyongyang's UN mission. This being completely undiscovered, US outreach poses concerns about how Biden will handle mounting tensions with Pyongyang over its nuclear arms and ballistic missile programs.

So far, Biden’s administration has been cautious in discussing its approach to North Korea in public. Efforts by his predecessor, Donald Trump, to convince North Korea to give up its nuclear arsenal failed. According to the official, there had been no meaningful engagement between the US and North Korea for more than a year, including at the end of Trump's presidency, despite several attempts by the US to engage during that time.

The US official refused to comment about how Pyongyang's silence will affect the Biden administration's North Korea policy review, which was due to be finished in the coming weeks.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has hinted that new sanctions may be imposed in conjunction with allies to pressure North Korea to denuclearize. Sanctions have so far failed to persuade Kim to abandon his provocative missile-defense moves.

Trump has been accused of allowing North Korea to advance its weapons by ignoring the country's short-range missile tests, despite the danger they posed to South Korea and Japan.

Before the Biden administration completes its policy review on North Korea, it is uncertain how it will react. If Biden takes a different approach and imposes additional restrictions on short-range missile launches, the North may use it as an excuse to perform more offensive tests, such as those involving submarine-launched ballistic missile systems.

Last week, Kim Jong Un's powerful sister slammed the US over its new round of joint military exercises with South Korea, labeling the tests as an invasion rehearsal and warning Washington to "refrain from making a mess" if it wants to "sleep in peace" for the next four years. The North's short-range missile tests on Sunday, according to the South Korean Defense Ministry, were the North's first since April 2020. Those launches were downplayed by Biden, who told reporters, "There's no new twist in what they did."

It remains to be seen if the US will take North Korea's threat in stride and lower the volume on its nuclear tests. Alternatively, calling Kim's bluff and intensify the hatefulness.