Biden concerned about North Korea nuclear weapons

U.S. President Joe Biden says he is “deeply concerned” that North Korea might test a nuclear weapon.

Biden discussed the threats from Pyongyang with Washington's Asian allies Japan and South Korea on Wednesday, on the sidelines of the NATO summit in Spain.

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said a nuclear missile test by North Korea should be met with a coordinated reaction from the three countries present at the meeting.

“I hope that response can be taken at a trilateral level,” he said.

There were concerns that North Korea might test a missile while Biden visited South Korea and Japan last month. It ended up firing three ballistic missiles shortly after Biden left for home.

— OTHER DEVELOPMENTS: NATO says a stronger and more capable European Union defense architecture can be “complementary” and “interoperable” with the alliance.

In its new Strategic Concept- the alliance's once-in-a-decade establishment of priorities and goals --- NATO at its annual summit Wednesday described the EU as a “unique and essential partner.” The document specifies that “initiatives to increase defense spending and develop coherent, mutually reinforcing capabilities, while avoiding unnecessary duplications, are key to our joint efforts to make the Euro-Atlantic area safer.” The move echoes French President Emmanuel Macron's push to develop more EU defense autonomy. Macron, whose rotating presidency of the bloc of 27 is ending on Friday, has long been championing the idea of making the EU security less dependent on the U.S. and NATO.

___ Spain's Queen Letizia has played tour guide to some of the first ladies of world leaders attending the NATO summit in Madrid.

The tour Wednesday included a group photograph in front of Pablo Picasso's famous “Guernica” anti-war painting.

Accompanied by Spanish first lady Begoña Gómez, the group zipped north on one of Spain's bullet AVE trains to the city of Segovia where the queen showed them around the luxurious royal palace and gardens of La Granja de San Ildefonso.

The women then whizzed back by bullet train to central Madrid's Puerta de Atocha station and crossed the road to the Reina Sofía art museum.

There, they saw Picasso's large, black and white “Guernica” oil masterpiece, an iconic work that depicts the horror of a Nazi and Italian fascist air bombing of a Basque town during the 1936-1939 Spanish Civil War.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)