Biden turns his attention back to Asia after months focused on Russia's war in Ukraine - CNN

The White House says it's prepared for all contingencies, including a test occurring while Biden is on the Korean peninsula.

In Seoul, he'll meet the country's newly elected president, Yoon Seok-youl, a first-time elective office holder who has signaled a desire to expand his country's foreign policy beyond just a focus on North Korea.

Biden is the third US president in a row to attempt a foreign policy refocus on Asia, though intervening events have often gotten in the way.

"Several administrations in succession in the United States have tried this effort to launch more fundamental efforts, policies, frameworks in Asia, East Asia, Indo-Pacific, and found themselves stymied, or misdirected, or directed towards other pursuits," said Kurt Campbell, the senior director for Asia on Biden's National Security Council, earlier this month.

We regard this as mutually reinforcing," he said, adding: "For us, there is a certain level of integration and a symbiosis in the strategy we are pursuing in Europe and the strategy we're pursuing in the Indo-Pacific and President Biden's unique capacity to actually stitch those two together, is, I think, going to be a hallmark of his foreign policy presidency."

Even as Biden turns his attention to Asia, the crisis in Ukraine remains his administration's dominant foreign policy focus.

Administration officials have acknowledged that senior foreign policy leaders inside the administration, along with the President himself, have been preoccupied over the past months with maintaining a united Western front against Russia and providing Ukraine military and economic assistance.

Even as Russia's war grinds on, however, tensions have been building elsewhere.

North Korea, which Biden identified as his greatest foreign policy challenge early in his presidency, resumed provocative weapons tests ahead of Yoon's inauguration.