U.S. President Joe Biden said today that he believes North Korea is the biggest foreign policy threat facing the United States.

At his first official press conference since taking office, he warned that his administration would "respond accordingly" if the North Korean leader, Kim Jong Un, took action to further escalate tensions.

Biden's statements follow a week of active missile launches by North Korea, most recently today Thursday, which experts said were likely short-range ballistic missiles, in violation of a United Nations Security Council resolution restricting ballistic missile activities.

When asked during the press conference, Thursday, whether he agreed with former US President Barack Obama's advice to his successor, Donald Trump, that "North Korea represents the greatest threat to foreign policy," Biden responded: "Yes."

Noting that his administration was consulting with allies and partners, Biden added that "there will be responses if they choose to escalate we will respond accordingly," but at the same time opened the door for talks with North Korea.

He told reporters: "I am also ready for some form of diplomacy, but it must be conditional on the final outcome of nuclear disarmament, so that is what we are doing now in consultation with our allies."

Joe Biden's predecessor, former U.S. President Donald Trump, was the first and only U.S. president to meet with North Korean leader, Kim Jong Un, and Trump's repeated efforts to denuclearize North Korea ultimately failed when his administration refused to ease sanctions as a precondition for denuclearization.