Indian Ocean Conference: Dr Jung Pak says she has no concerns about Biden's abilities after scathing report

A senior US diplomat has told The West she has no concerns over President Joe Biden’s capacity to serve a second term and is “proud” of his accomplishments, after a scathing Special Counsel report that fuelled concerns about his age. Dr Jung Pak — the deputy assistant secretary to the US Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs and a senior analyst on North Korea — defended the President’s abilities while in Perth on Friday for the Indian Ocean Conference. Dr Pak declined to discuss her personal interactions with Mr Biden, who is 81, and expressed confidence in him despite the investigator’s report. “I don’t have any concerns about his capacity, and I prefer not to engage with the political chattering classes about that,” she said. “My role is the policy and (that is what) we’ve been working on for the past three years.” Dr Pak said she she was “proud” of the Biden administration’s accomplishments in the region, which have included the signing of the landmark AUKUS agreement. “I’m really proud of our Indo Pacific strategy. I’m proud of our relationship that we have with Australia and all the things that we’re doing together,” she said. “I have deep respect and for what we’ve done, what he’s done and what this administration has accomplished.” The President’s verbal stumbles, coupled with the report, have raised fears among America’s allies that he will lose November’s election to former President Donald Trump, who would pursue an isolationist foreign policy. Mr Trump refused to accept his 2020 defeat and has used false claims the election was rigged to suggest the “termination of all rules, regulations, and articles, even those found in the Constitution” would be justified. On the international stage he has professed his “love” for North Korean despot Kim Jong-un and is opposed to funding Ukraine as it resists Russia’s invasion. The twice-impeached president would also be unlikely to continue cooperation with Pacific nations on climate change, an issue he has labelled a hoax. Dr Pak confirmed she had “heard” concerns about the result of the upcoming election in her travels to allied nations. “I’ve heard that here (in Australia) and elsewhere, but what I’ve been really emphasising to all of my friends and allies and partners is that there is really incredible, strong bipartisan support in the United States for what we’re doing in the Indo Pacific,” she said. “What we’re doing with Australia, what we’re doing with (South) Korea, Japan, all of our allies and partners, and really harnessing all of those energies and expertise toward these shared challenges that we’ve been talking about.” Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong told media on Friday that Mr Biden was a “great friend of Australia”. “We have worked very closely with him at a leader level and with this administration,” she said. Senator Wong declined to weigh in on what a second Trump term would mean for Australia, saying “the domestic politics of the United States is a matter for them”. “This is an alliance which has become stronger through many changes of administrations and many changes in Australian Governments and it will continue to be so,” she said. The diplomat’s visit comes as Mr Jong-un ramps up rhetoric with Seoul, claiming on Thursday that South Korea “can be attacked and destroyed at any time”. Dr Pak said the US would continue to work with Australia and other allies to deter Mr Jong-un but that she did not see “any signs of imminent actions by the DPRK”. “No one wants conflict on the Korean peninsula or anywhere in the Indo Pacific... this is one of the most dynamic economic engines in the world,” she said. “We focus a lot on the Indo Pacific because that’s where two thirds of economic growth is going to be.”