North Korea fires missile as Blinken warns of Russia cooperation – World

North Korea fired a missile on Monday while US Secretary of State Antony Blinken visited South Korea, where he warned that Pyongyang was working increasingly closely with Russia on advanced space technology.

Blinken’s trip came as investigators sought to arrest conservative President Yoon Suk Yeol, who has barricaded himself in his residence after being accused of a failed attempt to impose martial law.

Blinken, who had planned to encourage South Korea to maintain Yoon’s policy of improving cooperation with Japan, was in talks in Seoul when North Korea fired a ballistic missile that fell into the sea.

The missile flew about 1,100 kilometers (680 miles), the South Korean military said.

“Today’s launch is just a reminder to all of us of how important our collaborative work is,” Blinken said, pointing to the increase in tripartite exercises and intelligence sharing on North Korea.

Blinken and his South Korean counterpart, Cho Tae-yul, condemned the launch at a joint news conference, where the outgoing top US diplomat warned that Russia was stepping up its support for North Korea as a reward for its help in the fight against Ukraine.

North Korea “is already receiving Russian military equipment and training. “We now have reason to believe that Moscow intends to share advanced space and satellite technology with Pyongyang,” Blinken said.

Blinken also renewed his concern that Russia, a veto-wielding UN Security Council member, would formally accept North Korea as a nuclear state, which would be a blow to the global consensus that Pyongyang should end its program. .

U.S. and South Korean intelligence services believe North Korea sent thousands of troops to fight Ukraine late last year and has already suffered hundreds of casualties.

In Tokyo, where Blinken will address later Monday, Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba expressed alarm that North Korea’s “technology has been improving.”

People watch a television showing a news program with archive footage of a North Korean missile test, at a train station in Seoul, on January 6, 2025. — AFP

Changes established under Trump

The test comes two weeks before the inauguration of US President-elect Donald Trump, who in his last term sought to court North Korea with unique personal diplomacy.

Trump, who once threatened “fire and fury” against North Korea, met leader Kim Jong Un three times and said they “fell in love.”

President Joe Biden offered a more traditional formula of working-level talks focused on ending North Korea’s nuclear program.

Blinken defended the outgoing administration’s approach, saying it had reached out to North Korea and only gotten “more and more provocative actions, including missile launches.”

The tensions “are not due to a lack of compromise and trying to find a way forward through diplomacy,” he said.

Blinken coincidentally visited on the anniversary of the violent Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol by Trump supporters after Trump refused to accept defeat to Biden in the 2020 presidential election.

Yoon’s supporters waved American flags and invoked Trump by waving signs with his “Stop the Steal” slogan.

Blinken, whose hotel was within earshot of rowdy protests by Yoon’s supporters and opponents, avoided taking sides in the bitterly divided country.

He reiterated U.S. concern over Yoon’s brief imposition of martial law on Dec. 3 and hailed South Korea’s “democratic resilience,” without commenting on attempts to arrest the president.

“The United States has full confidence in South Korea’s institutions and we reaffirm our unwavering support for the Korean people as they work tirelessly to defend those institutions,” Blinken said.

Continuity promises

Previously, Yoon had been the Biden administration’s favorite. He was selected to lead a global summit on democracy and delighted Washington by turning the page on decades of friction with Japan, another U.S. ally that also hosts thousands of American troops.

Yoon joined Biden and Japan’s then-Prime Minister Fumio Kishida in 2023 for a historic tripartite summit at the Camp David presidential retreat.

South Korea’s “foreign policy direction will remain unchanged. “I made this clear,” Cho told Blinken.

Blinken also met with interim President Choi Sang-mok, a technocrat in office just over a week, whose office said South Korea remained committed to the “principles and agreements of the Camp David summit” and to a “strong alliance between Korea and the United States.” .

South Korea’s progressive opposition, which has made life miserable for Yoon in parliament and is increasingly on the rise since the president took power, has historically taken a harder line on Japan.

He has also favored a more diplomatic approach to North Korea than the hawkish Yoon.



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