Over the weekend, senior officials from the Biden administration said that North Korea did not reply to its various attempts to start up backchannel dialogue since mid-February. Coming ahead of U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin’s visit to Tokyo and Seoul — and amid the White House’s ongoing DPRK policy review — officials likely publicized this behind-the-scenes dynamic in order to put pressure on North Korea to respond. Officials may have also leaked the information to placate concerns that North Korea isn’t a priority for the Biden administration.[/p