White House Warns US Officials To Not Call North Korea A 'Criminal Syndicate'

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un addresses the first short course for chief secretaries of the city and county party committees in Pyongyang in an undated photo released March 7.KCNA / Reuters 

NBC: Biden aides bristled when Justice official called North Korea a 'criminal syndicate,' say officials 

When a Justice Department official called North Korea a "criminal syndicate," some of Biden's national security aides complained to the Justice Department. 

WASHINGTON — When the Justice Department indicted three North Koreans on cybertheft charges in February and an assistant attorney general labeled North Korea "a criminal syndicate with a flag," some of President Joe Biden's top national security aides bristled, two senior administration officials said. 

The rhetoric, the aides complained to the Justice Department, wasn't the toned-down type that senior officials had agreed just days earlier to use when speaking publicly about North Korea, and it risked antagonizing Pyongyang. 

A senior official said aides at the National Security Council "were not pleased with the choice of language" and expressed concern to the Justice Department that it was "going to provoke North Korea." 

The episode underscores concern within the White House about stirring up a looming crisis that the new president has so far not had to contend with publicly, and it exposes tensions within the government over whether it's best to confront or ignore the North Korean nuclear threat. 

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WNU Editor: But but but .... North Korea is run like a "criminal syndicate".

Update: No kidding .... Biden administration using 'toned-down' approach toward N. Korea to prevent escalation: report (Korea Herald).