The US and South Korea closed ranks behind common approaches to North Korea, Russia and China yesterday, vowing to continue to support Ukraine against Russia’s invasion and boosting humanitarian aid to Palestinian civilians in Gaza caught in Israel’s war against Hamas.
In talks with South Korea’s leadership, including the country’s president, Yoon Suk-yeol, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken discussed the growing threat posed by North Korea and its alleged provision of military equipment and munitions to Russia to help it wage war on Ukraine, the US Department of State said.
They also spoke of the importance of US-South Korea cooperation on global challenges, including China’s assertiveness and the instability in the Middle East, it said.
Photo: EPA-EFE
“They shared concerns about the DPRK’s [Democratic People’s Republic of Korea] provocations in the region and strongly condemned the provision of military equipment and munitions by the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea to the Russian Federation for use in its war against Ukraine,” the department said of Blinken’s meeting with Yoon, referring to North Korea by its formal name.
The Blinken-Yoon meeting also covered improving relations between South Korea and Japan as well as the importance of three-way cooperation between Washington, Tokyo and Seoul, it said.
At a news conference later with South Korean Minister of Foreign Affairs Park Jin, Blinken said they discussed unspecified further actions the countries could take to intensify pressure on Moscow not to transfer military technology to North Korea in violation of multiple UN Security Council resolutions.
North Korea has been supplying artillery shells and other munitions to Russia in recent months to fuel its war efforts in Ukraine, US and South Korean officials have said, and they suspect that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un could be seeking Russian technologies and other assistance in return to upgrade his own military.
“We’re seeing a two-way street. We’re seeing the DPRK provide military equipment to Russia for its brutal aggression against Ukraine but we’re also seeing Russia provide technological support to the DPRK for its own military programs and that’s a real concern for the security of [South] Korea,” Blinken said.
Blinken also criticized North Korea’s ramped up missile testing activity in recent months, which included events it characterized as simulated attacks on South Korea involving tactical nuclear weapons, saying the North is “increasingly engaged in threatening irresponsible rhetoric.”
“We’ve seen the DPRK missile launches, pursue weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missile capabilities all of which are in violent violation of multiple UN Security Council resolutions. They’re also dangerous and destabilizing,” he said.
Both diplomats urged China — North Korea’s main ally and economic lifeline — to take a greater role in pulling the North back from destabilizing behavior, with Park saying that the potential arms alignment between Russia and North Korea would go against Beijing’s interests.
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