Analysis: North Korean missile launches are a test for Biden

By FOSTER KLUG
Associated Press

TOKYO (AP) — A drumbeat of increasingly powerful North Korean missile launches has been met with a U.S. aircraft carrier floating off the Korean Peninsula. It’s a pattern that has repeated many times over the years, and, as in the past, there are plenty of signs in the latest cycle that point to North Korea eventually testing a nuclear bomb. Yes, this is part of North Korea’s dogged march toward building a viable arsenal of nuclear-tipped missiles able to target any city on the U.S. mainland. But the extraordinary run of missile tests this year — its most ever — is also meant to grab the attention of an important, and decidedly distracted, audience of one: President Joe Biden.