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Experts say voters should feel confident in US elections this year

washington — American voters face a challenging duality as they count down the days until November’s presidential election: a security landscape that officials say has become ever more dangerous even as the infrastructure to hold elections has become ever-more secure. 

The run-up to the 2024 election has seen the “most complex threat landscape yet,” according to Cait Conley, a senior adviser at the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), the government body responsible for overseeing election security. 

“We do see a growing and diverse array of foreign adversaries, foreign actors, trying to disrupt our elections,” Conley said Tuesday, speaking at Politico’s AI and Tech Summit in Washington.  

But U.S. voters should feel confident, she added. 

“We have been surging resources,” Conley said. “We have seen tremendous investment and progress in ensuring the full spectrum of security and resilience of our election infrastructure.” 

Nevertheless, Conley and other U.S. officials acknowledge the dangers are widespread, often extending beyond the voting booth. 

Physical threats 

The FBI and U.S. Postal Service said Tuesday they are investigating suspicious packages sent to election workers in at least 12 states. 

CISA officials have reported a growing number of swatting incidents — false reports to emergency services about violence or an emergency at a home or other location — targeting election workers. 

And the number of direct threats is rising rapidly. 

“We are seeing an unprecedented and extremely disturbing level of threats of violence, and violence, against public officials,” said U.S. Deputy General Lisa Monaco, also speaking at the summit in Washington.  

“For sure weekly and, sometimes, daily,” Monaco said of the frequency of the threats. 

Many of the threats target officials responsible for conducting elections. 

“These are people who are simply volunteering their time to help all of us undertake the most fundamental right,” she said. “These are people who are being threatened simply for doing their job.” 

Officials also warn that other public servants are getting a growing number of threats, including law enforcement officers, prosecutors and elected officials and candidates. 

“It’s serious,” said Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, citing Sunday’s apparent assassination attempt against former President Donald Trump as he played golf at his course in West Palm Beach, Florida. 

He also pointed to the rash of threats in Springfield, Ohio, following the spread of unsubstantiated rumors about Haitian immigrants eating pets.

“We are in a heightened threat environment … a threat environment that is of deep concern,” Mayorkas said. “It requires vigilance at every level of government and frankly on every block of each community across this country.” 

Concerns about the heightened threat environment are not new. 

Homeland Security officials have been warning of the dangers since at least January 2021, saying lone offenders or small groups could be motivated to carry out attacks motivated by a range of political and personal grievances.

Only now, high emotions over the election combined with efforts by U.S. adversaries are fueling discontent and anger that could lead to more attacks. 

Cyber operations 

“When it comes to malign influence campaigns, we are seeing a very aggressive set of actors,” Monaco said. 

Many of the efforts to sow discord have originated in Russia and Iran, and to a lesser extent China.  But they are far from alone. 

“We’re seeing more actors in this space acting more aggressively in a more polarized environment and doing more with technologies, in particular AI,” Monaco said.  

Earlier this month, the U.S. Justice Department took action against what it said were two Russian plots to spread disinformation, taking down 32 fake news websites while bringing charges against two employees of Russia-backed media outlet RT, accusing them of funneling nearly $10 million to a U.S. company to promote material favorable to the Russian government. 

And last week, the U.S. State Department accused a number of Russian media companies, including RT, of working directly for Russia’s intelligence agencies – charges Russia and RT denied. 

US preparations 

The best defense, Monaco said, is for U.S. voters to be careful about where they get their information. 

“We have to be very vigilant on what we are consuming,” she said. 

Experts like Margaret Talev, who directs the Syracuse University Institute for Democracy, Journalism and Citizenship in Washington, agree. 

Voters should “take a pause. Take a minute,” Talev told VOA. “It involves all of us teaching ourselves, taking our time and trying to verify information from multiple sources rather than just believing the first thing that we see.” 

The National Association of Secretaries of State (NASS), whose members play key roles in running elections, has also sought to make getting verified information easier, pushing a social media campaign it calls #TrustedInfo2024. 

NASS says its goal is “to promote election officials as the trusted sources of election information during the 2024 election cycle and beyond.” 

And CISA, the cybersecurity and infrastructure security agency, has been working with election officials across the country to make sure they are ready for almost any contingency. 

CISA officials have also tried to rein in the hype about the dangers of AI, or artificial intelligence, blamed for helping U.S. adversaries to spread disinformation more effectively. 

“Generative AI is not going to fundamentally introduce new threats to this election cycle,” the agency’s Conley told VOA earlier this month.

While AI is exacerbating existing threats, so far it has not produced anything elections officials have not already seen. 

“This threat vector is not new to them,” Conley said. “And they have taken the measures to ensure they’re prepared to respond effectively.” 
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Haitians in Ohio react to false allegations against them

A small town in the Midwestern state of Ohio finds itself at the center of a controversy involving fake news about migrants eating residents’ pet cats and dogs. VOA’s Creole Service traveled to Springfield and has this report, narrated by Elizabeth Cherneff.
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Analysis: Shift in women’s voter demographics could favor Democrats

American women are poised to play an important role in deciding the 2024 U.S. presidential election. In recent years, women have registered to vote and cast votes at higher rates than men, and in the 2020 election, female voters outnumbered male voters by several million. Although women are not a monolithic voting bloc, the trends favor one major party over the other, as Dora Mekouar reports.
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Investigators search for motive of would-be Trump assassin

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Suspect in apparent attempt to assassinate Trump charged in federal court

An apparent assassination attempt on Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump over the weekend raised new questions Monday about political violence in the United States. Democratic and Republican leaders called for more resources for the U.S. Secret Service. VOA’s congressional correspondent Katherine Gypson has more
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Slurs against Haitian immigrants echo long history of racism in US

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Ohio city cancels cultural festival after political furor over Haitians

Springfield, Ohio — An Ohio city at the center of a political furor over Haitian migrants canceled its annual celebration of cultural diversity on Monday in response to days of violent threats that have closed schools and government offices. The governor, meanwhile, said resources would be surged to Springfield to help city officials deal with the fallout.

Springfield’s two-day CultureFest, which highlights diversity, arts and culture, had been scheduled to begin Sept. 27 but was canceled “in light of recent threats and safety concerns,” the city announced.

“We deeply regret having to cancel CultureFest, as we know it is a beloved event for our community,” City Manager Bryan Heck said in a statement. “However, the safety of our residents and visitors must come first.”

Springfield has been the focus of intense attention in recent days after former President Donald Trump, his running mate JD Vance, and the Republican presidential campaign have amplified debunked claims about Haitian immigrants eating domestic pets and waterfowl.

Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine, a Republican, has denounced the false rumors, saying there is no evidence of it. He said at a news conference in Springfield on Monday that dozens of members of the Ohio State Highway Patrol will be stationed in Springfield schools starting Tuesday, sweeping each building every morning before the arrival of faculty or students. Security cameras have also been stationed at various spots in the city.

Springfield City Hall, several schools, and state motor vehicle offices in Springfield were forced to evacuate last week after receiving bomb threats. At least 33 separate bomb threats were made in recent days, all of them hoaxes, DeWine said. He said some of the threats came from overseas but declined to name the country.

“We cannot let the bad guys win. Our schools must remain open. They are going to remain open,” DeWine said.

Two colleges in Springfield held classes virtually on Monday. Wittenberg University said it received two threats over the weekend, “both of which were targeted toward members of the Haitian Community.” Clark State College said it would operate virtually through Friday “due to recent events in Springfield.”

Thousands of Haitian immigrants have settled in recent years in the predominantly white, blue-collar city of about 60,000, about 45 miles (70 kilometers) from the state capital of Columbus, where they have found work in factories and warehouses that had been struggling to fill job openings. The sudden influx has strained schools, health care facilities and city services and driven up the cost of housing.

President Joe Biden, appearing in Philadelphia at the National HBCU Week Conference on Monday, addressed the situation in Springfield, condemning what he called the “lies and hate.”

“It’s wrong. It’s simply wrong. And it must stop,” he said.
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Biden decries second assassination attempt targeting Trump

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Russia, Iran looking to snare, sway US voters

America’s adversaries are ramping up efforts to impact the outcome of the U.S. presidential election and down-ballot races. VOA National Security Correspondent Jeff Seldin reports on the expanding array of sophisticated influence operations taking aim at U.S. voters
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Postal Service chief ‘fully committed’ to timely US ballot deliveries

Washington — U.S. Postmaster General Louis DeJoy said on Monday he is “personally fully committed” to ensuring all 2024 presidential election ballots are delivered in a timely fashion and vowed to respond to concerns raised by state and local officials.

A group of about three dozen election officials from the National Association of State Election Directors and other groups on Wednesday raised serious concerns about USPS’s ability to deliver millions of ballots for the 2024 presidential election, citing questions “about processing facility operations, lost or delayed election mail, and front-line training deficiencies impacting USPS’s ability to deliver election mail in a timely and accurate manner.”  

DeJoy said in a letter released on Monday that he would hold a call with state officials to address specific concerns.

The officials said that, despite repeated meetings with USPS election staff, “we have not seen improvement or concerted efforts to remediate our concerns.”  

DeJoy said the USPS Office of Inspector General is auditing its plants and delivery units and will report any election mail issues they discover “and we will address those issues expeditiously.”

Starting Oct. 1, USPS will deploy ballot monitors and others in processing, retail and delivery units “to reinforce and amplify our policies and procedures on the ground”

USPS said on average it is currently delivering mail in 2.7 days but continues “to recommend as a common-sense measure that voters should mail their completed ballot before Election Day, and at least one week prior to their state’s deadline.”

The inspector general has said 46% of votes were cast by mail in the November 2020 presidential election, compared with 21% in the 2016 election.

USPS said in the 2020 general election, it delivered 99.89% of ballots from voters to election officials within seven days. Voting by mail in some states is set to start in the coming weeks.
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Condemnations, calls for better Secret Service protection follow apparent Trump assassination attempt

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Which candidate is better for tech innovation? Venture capitalists divided on Harris or Trump

LOS ANGELES — Being a venture capitalist carries a lot of prestige in Silicon Valley. Those who choose which startups to fund see themselves as fostering the next big waves of technology.

So when some of the industry’s biggest names endorsed former President Donald Trump and the onetime venture capitalist he picked for a running mate, JD Vance, people took notice.

Then hundreds of other venture capitalists — some high profile, others lesser-known — threw their weight behind Vice President Kamala Harris, drawing battle lines over which presidential candidate will be better for tech innovation and the conditions startups need to thrive.

Venture capitalist and Harris backer Stephen DeBerry says some of his best friends support Trump. Though centered in a part of Northern California known for liberal politics, the investors who help finance the tech industry have long been a more politically divided bunch.

“We ski together. Our families are together. We’re super tight,” said DeBerry, who runs the Bronze Venture Fund. “This is not about not being able to talk to each other. I love these guys — they’re almost all guys. They’re dear friends. We just have a difference of perspective on policy issues.”

It remains to be seen if the more than 700 venture capitalists who’ve voiced support for a movement called “VCs for Kamala” will match the pledges of Trump’s well-heeled supporters such as Elon Musk and Peter Thiel.

“There are a lot of practical reasons for VCs to support Trump,” including policies that could drive corporate profits and stock market values and favor wealthy benefactors, said David Cowan, an investor at Bessemer Venture Partners. But Cowan said he is supporting Harris as a VC with a “long-term investment horizon” because a “Trump world reeling from rampant income inequality, raging wars and global warming is not an attractive environment” for funding healthy businesses.

Several prominent VCs have voiced their support for Trump on Musk’s social platform X. Public records show some of them have donated to a new, pro-Trump super PAC called America PAC, whose donors include powerful tech industry conservatives with ties to SpaceX and Paypal and who run in Musk’s social circle. Also driving support is Trump’s embrace of cryptocurrency and promise to end an enforcement crackdown on the industry.

Although some Biden policies have alienated parts of the investment sector concerned about tax policy, antitrust scrutiny or overregulation, Harris’ bid for the presidency has reenergized interest from VCs who until recently sat on the sidelines.

“We buy risk, right? And we’re trying to buy the right type of risk,” Leslie Feinzaig, founder of “VCs for Kamala” said in an interview. “It’s really hard for these companies that are trying to build products and scale to do so in an unpredictable institutional environment.”

The schism in tech has left some firms split in their allegiances. Although venture capitalists Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz, founders of the firm that is their namesake, endorsed Trump, one of their firm’s general partners, John O’Farrell, pledged his support for Harris. O’Farrell declined further comment.

Doug Leone, the former managing partner of Sequoia Capital, endorsed Trump in June, expressing concern on X “about the general direction of our country, the state of our broken immigration system, the ballooning deficit, and the foreign policy missteps, among other issues.” But Leone’s longtime business partner at Sequoia, Michael Moritz, wrote in the Financial Times that tech leaders supporting Trump “are making a big mistake.”

Much of the VC discourse about elections is in response to a July podcast and manifesto in which Andreessen and Horowitz backed Trump and outlined their vision of a “Little Tech Agenda” that they said contrasted with the policies sought by Big Tech.

They accused the U.S. government of increasing hostility toward startups and the VCs who fund them, citing Biden’s proposed higher taxes on the wealthy and corporations and regulations they said could hobble emerging industries involving blockchain and artificial intelligence.

Vance, a U.S. senator from Ohio who spent time in San Francisco working at Thiel’s investment firm, voiced a similar perspective about “little tech” more than a month before he was chosen as Trump’s running mate.

“The donors who were really involved in Silicon Valley in a pro-Trump way, they’re not big tech, right? They’re little tech. They’re starting innovative companies. They don’t want the government to destroy their ability to innovate,” Vance said in an interview on Fox News in June.

Complicating the allegiances is that a tough approach to breaking up the monopoly power of big corporations no longer falls along partisan lines. Vance has spoken favorably of Lina Khan, who Biden picked to lead the Federal Trade Commission and has taken on several tech giants. Meanwhile, some of the most influential VCs backing Harris — such as LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman; and Sun Microsystems co-founder Vinod Khosla, an early investor in ChatGPT-maker OpenAI — have sharply criticized Khan’s approach.

U.S. Rep. Ro Khanna, a Democrat whose California district encompasses part of Silicon Valley, said Trump supporters are a vocal minority reflecting a “third or less” of the region’s tech community. But while the White House has appealed to tech entrepreneurs with its investments in clean energy, electric vehicles and semiconductors, Khanna said Democrats must do a better job of showing that they understand the appeal of digital assets.

Naseem Sayani, a general partner at Emmeline Ventures, said Andreessen and Horowitz’s support of Trump became a lightning rod for those in tech who do not back the Republican nominee. Sayani signed onto “VCs for Kamala,” she said, because she wanted the types of businesses that she helps fund to know that the investor community is not monolithic.

“We’re not single-profile founders anymore,” she said. “There’s women, there’s people of color, there’s all the intersections. How can they feel comfortable building businesses when the environment they’re in doesn’t actually support their existence in some ways?”
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Trump safe after second assassination attempt, authorities say

washington — For the second time in nine weeks, former President Donald Trump walked away from an assassination attempt – the latest, on Sunday afternoon, at his golf club in West Palm Beach, Florida, authorities said.

Officials said Trump was not hurt, and that the shooter was spotted and fired on first by members of Trump’s security detail.

Various national media sources, including The Associated Press, The New York Times and Fox News Channel, cited unnamed law enforcement officials who identified the suspect as Ryan Wesley Routh, 58, of Hawaii. Those officials spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the ongoing investigation.

Unlike the previous attempt, this one did not happen on live television, like the dramatic shooting Trump survived on July 13. That attempt wounded Trump in the ear and killed a man attending the rally behind Trump. Days later, Trump accepted the Republican party’s presidential nomination.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation, which is leading the case, has described it as “what appears to be an attempted assassination.” That makes this the agency’s second ongoing investigation into an attempt on Trump’s life.  

The local sheriff said the suspect fled, leaving behind an “AK-47-style rifle” with a scope, a GoPro camera and two backpacks. Police later caught him as he sped on the main highway into a neighboring county.

“The Secret Service agent that was on the course did a fantastic job,” said Sheriff Ric Bradshaw of the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office, in a briefing held by law enforcement shortly after. “What they do is they have an agent that jumps one hole ahead of time to where the president was at. And he was able to spot this rifle barrel sticking out of the fence and immediately engage that individual, at which time the individual took off.”

In a joint statement sent out to journalists less than an hour after the Trump campaign announced this latest attempt on Trump’s life, President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris said they were being regularly briefed and said they are “relieved” that he is safe.

“The president and vice president have been briefed about the security incident at the Trump International Golf Course, where former President Trump was golfing,” their statement read. “They are relieved to know that he is safe. They will be kept regularly updated by their team.” 

And in evening statement, Biden reiterated his message from the July shooting.

“As I have said many times, there is no place for political violence or for any violence ever in our country, and I have directed my team to continue to ensure that Secret Service has every resource, capability and protective measure necessary to ensure the former President’s continued safety,” he said. 

And Harris issued a shorter, solo statement on social media, in which she said, “Violence has no place in America.” 

Trump has not reacted to this latest turn of events on the social media platform he owns. 

However, in an email to supporters, Trump said: “There were gunshots in my vicinity, but before rumors start spiraling out of control, I wanted you to hear this first: I AM SAFE AND WELL!”

And so, as dawn rises and questions swirl in America about how this will impact what has already been a tumultuous election season as America hurtles toward November.

Trump has not announced any changes to his schedule and is set to speak live on X on Monday night from his Mar-a-Lago resort to launch his sons’ crypto platform.

Meanwhile, the leaders of a congressional bipartisan task force investigating the July 13 assassination attempt on Trump said they have requested a briefing by the Secret Service. 

Some of the material for this story is from Reuters and The Associated Press.
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On Iran, Harris emphasizes defensive approach; Trump highlights record of sanctions

Iran’s threatening behavior toward the United States and its ally Israel is one of only a few foreign policy issues addressed by U.S. presidential rivals Kamala Harris and Donald Trump in the election campaign. Michael Lipin looks at the differing approaches of Harris and Trump in facing the threat from Iran and its proxies.
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Vance defends claim Haitian migrants are eating neighbors’ pets

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Immigration takes center stage in debate, but no major proposals from candidates

When Kamala Harris and Donald Trump faced each other on the debate stage less than two months before Election Day, the two candidates were at odds on issues ranging from the economy to tariffs and Ukraine. But on immigration, their positions were especially different. VOA immigration reporter Aline Barros brings us the story.
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Ohio city reshaped by Haitian immigrants lands in unwelcome spotlight

SPRINGFIELD, Ohio — Many cities have been reshaped by immigrants in the last few years without attracting much notice. Not Springfield, Ohio.

Its story of economic renewal and related growing pains has been thrust into the national conversation in a presidential election year — and maliciously distorted by false rumors that Haitian immigrants are eating their neighbors’ pets. Donald Trump amplified those lies during Tuesday’s nationally televised debate, exacerbating some residents’ fears about growing divisiveness in the predominantly white, blue-collar city of about 60,000.

At the city’s Haitian Community Help and Support Center on Wednesday, Rose-Thamar Joseph said many of the roughly 15,000 immigrants who arrived in the past few years were drawn by good jobs and the city’s relative affordability. But a rising sense of unease has crept in as longtime residents increasingly bristle at newcomers taking jobs at factories, driving up housing costs, worsening traffic and straining city services.

“Some of them are talking about living in fear. Some of them are scared for their life,” Joseph said.

A “Welcome To Our City” sign hangs from a parking garage downtown, where a coffee shop, bakery and boutique line Springfield’s main drag, North Fountain Street. A flag advertising “CultureFest,” the city’s annual celebration of unity through diversity, waves from a pole nearby.

Melanie Flax Wilt, a Republican commissioner in the county where Springfield is located, said she has been pushing for community and political leaders to “stop feeding the fear.”

“After the election and everybody’s done using Springfield, Ohio, as a talking point for immigration reform, we are going to be the ones here still living through the challenges and coming up with the solutions,” she said.

Ariel Dominique, executive director of the Haitian American Foundation for Democracy, said she laughed at first at the absurdity of the false claims. But seeing the comments repeated on national television by the former president was painful.

“It is so unfair and unjust and completely contrary to what we have contributed to the world, what we have contributed to this nation for so long,” Dominique said.

The falsehoods about Springfield’s Haitian immigrants were spread online by Trump’s running mate, JD Vance, on the eve of Tuesday’s debate between Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris. It’s part of a timeworn American political tradition of casting immigrants as outsiders.

“This is what’s happening in our country. And it’s a shame,” Trump said at the debate after repeating the falsehoods. When challenged by ABC News moderator David Muir over the false claims, Trump held firm, saying “people on television” said their dogs were eaten, but he offered no evidence.

Officials in Springfield have tried to tamp down the misinformation by saying there have been no credible or detailed reports of any pets being abducted or eaten. State leaders are trying to help address some of the real challenges facing the city.

Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine, a Republican, said Tuesday he would add more law enforcement and health care resources to an aid package the state has already provided to Springfield.

Many Haitians have come to the U.S. to flee poverty and violence. They have embraced President Joe Biden’s new and expanded legal pathways to enter, and have shunned illegal crossings, accounting for only 92 border arrests out of more than 56,000 in July, the latest data available.

The Biden administration recently announced an estimated 300,000 Haitians in the U.S. could remain in the country at least through February 2026, with eligibility for work authorization, under a law called Temporary Protected Status. The goal is to spare people from being deported to countries in turmoil.

Springfield, about 72 kilometers from the state capital of Columbus, suffered a steep decline in its manufacturing sector toward the end of the last century, and its population shrank as a result. But its downtown has been revitalized in recent years as more Haitians arrived and helped meet the rising demand for labor as the economy emerged from the pandemic. Officials say Haitians now account for about 15% of the population.

The city was shaken last year when a minivan slammed into a school bus, killing an 11-year-old boy. The driver was a Haitian man who recently settled in the area and was driving without a valid license. During a city commission meeting on Tuesday, the boy’s parents condemned politicians’ use of their son’s death to stoke hatred.

Last week, a post on the social media platform X shared what looked like a screengrab of a social media post apparently out of Springfield. The post claimed without evidence that the person’s “neighbor’s daughter’s friend” saw a cat hanging from a tree to be butchered and eaten, outside a house where it claimed Haitians lived. It was accompanied by a photo of a Black man carrying what appeared to be a goose by its feet.

On Monday, Vance posted on X: “Reports now show that people have had their pets abducted and eaten by people who shouldn’t be in this country.” The next day, he posted again, saying his office had received inquiries from Springfield residents who said “their neighbors’ pets or local wildlife were abducted by Haitian migrants.”

Longtime Springfield resident Chris Hazel, who knows the park and neighborhood where the pet and goose abductions were purported to have happened, called the claims “preposterous.”

“It reminds me of when people used to accuse others and outsiders as cannibals. It’s dehumanizing a community,” he said of the accusations against the city’s Haitian residents.

Sophia Pierrilus, the daughter of a former Haitian diplomat who moved to the Ohio capital of Columbus 15 years ago and is now an immigrant advocate, agreed, calling it all political.

“My view is that’s their way to use Haitians as a scapegoat to bring some kind of chaos in America,” she said.

With its rising population of immigrants, Springfield is hardly an outlier. So far this decade, immigration has accounted for almost three-quarters of U.S. population growth, with 2.5 million immigrants arriving in the United States between 2020 and 2023, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Population growth is an important driver of economic growth.

“The Haitian immigrants who started moving to Springfield the last few years are the reason why the economy and the labor force has been revitalized there,” said Guerline Jozef, executive director of the Haitian Bridge Alliance, which provides legal and social services to immigrants across the U.S.

Now, she said, Haitians in Springfield have told her that, out of fear, they are considering leaving the city.
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Voting by noncitizens in US is rare. Republicans aim to keep it that way

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‘Childless cat ladies’ and ‘anti-family’ assertions give rise to natalism

Parenthood has become politicized this election season. As U.S. birthrates decline and more Americans choose not to start a family, some portend the collapse of the U.S. economy and society. But experts say it’s not that simple. Tina Trinh reports.
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Mounting North Korean threats await next US president

washington — Recent moves by Pyongyang have focused attention on what will be one of the first major foreign policy challenges facing the next U.S. president: how to deal with North Korea’s rapidly developing nuclear threat.

In a set of rapid-fire developments on Friday:

— North Korean leader Kim Jong Un called for an “exponential increase” in the size of his nation’s nuclear arsenal, according to the state-run news agency KCNA. He made the same call in speeches on Tuesday and on the last day of 2022.

— State media released photos for the first time of the Nuclear Weapons Institute where North Korea processes uranium for the manufacture of nuclear weapons. The photos, which showed a sophisticated array of centrifuges, were made public as Kim toured the facility.

— North Korea announced that it had tested a new type of 600 mm multiple rocket launcher the previous day. South Korea said on Thursday that North Korea test-fired several short-range ballistic missiles into the waters off the eastern coast.

The developments came in the context of enhanced military cooperation between North Korea and Russia, which is believed to be helping Pyongyang to develop its weapons capabilities in exchange for munitions used in Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.

“The threat from North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs has been growing steadily and virtually unchecked over the course of several U.S. administrations,” said Evans Revere, a former State Department official with extensive experience negotiating with North Korea.

“Whoever the next U.S. president is, she or he will face a more sophisticated and dangerous North Korean threat.”

Revere said in an interview that the winner of the U.S. election would have to find ways to weaken the link between Moscow and Pyongyang “and demonstrate to Beijing that its ‘partnership without limits’ with Russia is a dangerous and ill-advised path that will yield no benefits” for China.

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping declared in May a “new era” in opposition to the U.S. and reaffirmed the “no limits” partnership that was first announced just days before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

While China has held back on providing Russia with arms for its war effort, the United States has accused it of delivering electronic components and other dual-use items that are keeping Moscow’s arms industry afloat.

Pyongyang, for its part, denies participating in any arms transfers to Russia, an act that would violate United Nations sanctions.

But a report this week by Conflict Armament Research, a U.K.-based group that tracks weapons in armed conflicts, said parts from four North Korean missiles have been found in Ukraine.

The missiles, examined by Kyiv, are either KN-23 or KN-24, known as Hwasong-11 short-range missile series, and thought to have been used in attacks in July and August, the report said.

Pyongyang-Moscow military ties have also been expanded to include tourism, trade, and economic and technical cooperation.

This makes the use of sanctions less effective as a policy tool to counter North Korea’s nuclear buildup, according to Gary Samore, former White House coordinator for arms control and weapons of mass destruction during the Obama administration.

“That’s not as much leverage now as it was before because of the Russian-North Korean relationship,” said Samore. “The U.S. doesn’t have very strong economic leverage that it can use with North Korea.”

With few obvious policy options available, the two presidential candidates – former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris – have largely confined themselves to criticizing each other’s approach without laying out any specific plans to roll back the North Korean threat.

At Tuesday night’s televised debate, Harris criticized Trump for exchanging “love letters with Kim Jong Un” during his presidency while Trump disapproved of the current administration’s handling of the issue, saying, “Look at what’s going on in North Korea.”

During his presidency, Trump held three summits with Kim but the diplomatic effort ultimately failed when Trump refused Kim’s demand for sanctions relief in exchange for a partial rollback of his nuclear program.

There have been no formal talks between the two countries since, although the Biden administration insists it is open to negotiations without preconditions, a policy that Harris could be expected to continue if elected.

The Biden administration also maintains that its goal remains the complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, even as many experts suggest it is time to acknowledge that Pyongyang will not give up its weapons and say the international community should focus on containment.

Samore predicted that a Harris administration would continue to say that “as an ultimate objective … the U.S. seeks denuclearization in the long term.”

A second Trump administration, he theorized, may say “denuclearization is no longer possible” and “accept North Korea as a nuclear power.”

Robert Rapson, who served as charge d’affaires and deputy chief of mission at the U.S. Embassy in Seoul from 2018 to 2021, said much would depend on how the winner of the election decides to work with regional allies South Korea and Japan.

“In the likely absence of any grand outreach towards Pyongyang, Harris will have to carefully manage the relationship with ally Seoul, with a focus for the foreseeable future on maintaining peace and stability on the peninsula,” he said.

He added that it was “uncertain at this moment” whether Trump would feel compelled to reach out to Kim and whether he would diminish the value of the alliances with South Korea and Japan.

Eunjung Cho contributed to this report.
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