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By Kang Seung-woo

Despite the highly hyped visit of U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin to South Korea last week, there were no major new initiatives for how to deal with North Korea, probably because the Joe Biden administration hasn't finished the review of its policy toward the country.

Ahead of their arrival in Seoul, the United States attempted several ways to get in touch with North Korea, but the officials were more focused during their stay on the North Korean regime's nuclear program and human rights abuses, a move questioning the diplomatic undertone in its "two-track" approach to engaging Pyongyang.

North Korea sought to insert itself in the secretaries' trip to South Korea by announcing that it will ignore the U.S.' overtures unless it drops its hostile policy toward the country, but it did not opt for any expected provocative actions, a decision hinting that the North may take a wait-and-see approach to the new American administration until the policy review process is finished in a few weeks.

"Although the Biden administration policy toward North Korea has not yet been released, aspects of it emerged during the secretaries' trip. The administration affirmed its commitment to dialogue with North Korea, insistence on denuclearization as an objective rather than more limited arms control goals, and advocacy for human rights in North Korea," said Bruce Klingner, a former CIA analyst and senior researcher at the Heritage Foundation.

According to the joint statement of the two-plus-two meeting between foreign and defense ministers of South Korea and the United States, Thursday, the two sides reaffirmed a shared commitment to address and resolve North Korean nuclear and ballistic missile issues, while Blinken criticized the North for committing "systemic and widespread abuses against its own people" during his meeting with South Korean Foreign Minister Chung Eui-yong, Wednesday.

As for the Biden team's focus on human rights violations in North Korea, Ramon Pacheco Pardo, an associate professor of international relations at King's College London, said, "I think this is partly the result of the Biden administration's belief in the need to uphold human rights, and partly a reaction to Trump's disregard for this issue when dealing with North Korea."

However, Park Won-gon, a professor of North Korean studies at Ewha Womans University, said its rebuke of North Korea's human rights violations in Seoul is in line with its campaign to counter China.