As North Korea’s military cooperation with Russia grows, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken stated Thursday that he and South Korea’s Foreign Minister Park Jin have “profound” worries about it.
Blinken and Park also discussed collaborating to implement an “extended deterrence strategy” that would resist North Korean threats and advance strategic collaboration with Japan.
“Already, our three countries are taking steps to improve our joint response through real-time sharing of DPRK missile warning data, trilateral defense exercises, and efforts to counter DPRK’s malicious cyber activities.”
North Korea’s official name is the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, or DPRK. The United States, South Korea, and Japan have denounced the alleged transfer of military hardware and armaments from North Korea to Russia, citing container movements from the isolated nation to Russia as proof.
Despite their leaders’ promises of further military cooperation at their September meeting in the deep east of Russia, North Korea and Russia have denied ever having any arms transactions.
Park said the two foreign ministers urged the North to abandon its plans to deploy a spy satellite during their discussion with Blinken.
North Korea is getting ready to launch one after failing to place a spy satellite into orbit twice this year. Last week, South Korea announced that North Korea, ostensibly receiving technical assistance from Russia, was nearing the end of its launch preparations.
After North Korea declared November 18 to be “missile industry day” in observance of its intercontinental ballistic missile test last year, the South Korean military said on Monday that it was on alert.
The first state visit by a U.S. secretary of state to South Korea in 2.5 years, Blinken’s two-day visit is part of a more extensive Asia tour that includes a stop in India. Before Japan, he was in the Middle East.
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