U.S. experts argue that Washington must make room in its top national security priorities to address an enormous and mounting security problem, North Korea.

In the Foreign Affairs magazine released Friday, Katrin Katz and Victor Cha from the Center for Strategic and International Studies(CSIS) said that as the world is transfixed by the war in Ukraine, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un seemed to sense an opportunity. 

They said that since the Russian invasion began, Kim has tested a slew of ballistic missiles, including hypersonic and long-range weapons, with relatively little international scrutiny. 

They said President Joe Biden’s national security team has been understandably preoccupied with Ukraine but North Korea’s nuclear missile technology is rapidly advancing and demands urgent attention. 

They said that without a change in U.S. strategy or an unexpected diplomatic breakthrough, Kim Jong-un could eventually achieve his goal of being able to strike the U.S. with a nuclear-tipped intercontinental ballistic missile.

The authors pointed out that the U.S. must make room in its top security priorities to address North Korea. They said the North's missile development not only endangers America but could also imperil the U.S.-led alliance system in Asia by stirring doubts about the credibility of U.S. extended deterrence

They said it also gives Pyongyang new means to intimidate and coerce South Korea and Japan. 

Katz and Cha argued that if Washington hopes to maintain peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific area, and the world, it must confront North Korea’s ballistic missile program, and take immediate steps to contain it, before it is too late.