N Korea's military capacity grew amid US sanctions: Report

While Donald Trump imposed multiple sanctions on North Korea to cut off the nation's economy from the rest of the world during the four years of his presidency, Kim Jong Un mobilized massive efforts to build a self-reliant military in his country. 

Over the past two years, Kim Jong Un has test-launched a wide range of new rockets and deployed a fleet of trucks to transport nuclear weapons across the country, with the aim of threatening rival forces closer to North Korea. According to a Bloomberg report, North Korea, under the Kim Jong Un regime, has acquired at least three different intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM) that have the potential to launch a nuclear attack on a US city. 

As per experts, most of this new weaponry is domestically designed and developed in spite of massive US sanctions on North Korean industrial machinery, oil, weapons, and foreign investment.

As per a UN Security Council expert, North Korea has been developing warheads of its ballistic missiles that could overpower US antimissile systems. Over recent months, Kim has also introduced a new range of ballistic missiles that are said to be bigger and more powerful. In a military parade in October 2020, he introduced a big ICBM, which is reportedly the world's largest road-mobile missile with a capacity to carry multiple warheads. 

These new heavy weapons also indicate that North Korea is heavily investing in extensive military research and advanced technology to boost its defense potential.

At the same time, three of the most heavily sanctions countries - North Korea, Iran, and Venezuela - have come together in recent years, with the aim of strengthening their strategic, military, and economic partnerships. Harsh economic sentiments have triggered anti-US sentiments among Tehran, Pyongyang, and Caracas, which inadvertently developed partnerships between these nations across various fronts.

Noting that this partnership poses a grave threat to America's national security, the incoming Biden administration will have to rethink US economic statecraft in order to destabilize the emerging anti-American coalition. While the Trump administration used sanctions as a weapon on a number of nations to induce change and persuade them to bend to Washing's demands, the Biden administration will have to chalk out an action plan to address the growing anti-America sentiments among these governments. 

As North Korea's nuclear weaponry continues to grow under Kim's administration, it will become further difficult for the US to denuclearise the Korean peninsula. As per reports, North Korea is expected to hold a military parade in January 2021 to demonstrate its current military strength, while targeting the new US administration under President Joe Biden.