North Korea yesterday fired a missile as US Secretary of State Antony Blinken visited South Korea, where he warned that Pyongyang was working ever more closely with Russia on advanced space technology.
Blinken’s trip came as investigators were trying to arrest South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol, who has entrenched himself in his residence after being impeached for a failed attempt to impose martial law.
Blinken, who had planned to encourage South Korea to maintain Yoon’s policy of enhancing cooperation with Japan, was in talks in Seoul when North Korea fired a ballistic missile that fell into the sea.
Photo: EPA-EFE
The missile flew about 1,100km, 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 increased three-way exercises and intelligence-sharing on North Korea.
Blinken and South Korean Minister of Foreign Affairs Cho Tae-yul condemned the launch at a joint news conference, where the outgoing US top diplomat warned that Russia was stepping up support for North Korea as a reward for its help fighting Ukraine.
Photo: AFP
North Korea “is already receiving Russian military equipment and training. Now we have reason to believe that Moscow intends to share advanced space and satellite technology with Pyongyang,” Blinken said.
He also renewed concern that Russia, a veto-wielding UN Security Council member, would formally accept North Korea as a nuclear state, which would be a major blow to the global consensus that Pyongyang must end its program.
US and South Korean intelligence believe that North Korea late last year sent thousands of troops to fight against Ukraine and has already suffered hundreds of casualties.
In Tokyo, where Blinken was later to visit, Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba voiced alarm that North Korea’s “technology has been improving.”
Blinken, whose hotel was within earshot of rowdy protests by supporters and opponents of Yoon, steered clear of taking sides in the bitterly divided country.
He repeated Washington’s concern over Yoon’s brief imposition of martial law on Dec. 3 last year and saluted the “democratic resilience” of South Korea, without commenting on attempts to arrest the president.
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