Seoul — North Korea tested a ballistic missile Monday during U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s visit to South Korea, where he warned that Pyongyang was working increasingly closely with Russia on advanced space technologies. Blinken also said that while he believed a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas would end the war in Gazathis might not happen until after President Biden’s term, depending on returning president-elect Donald Trump.
Blinken traveled to Seoul as investigators attempt to arrest conservative President Yoon Suk Yeolwho took refuge in his residence after being indicted for a failure attempt to impose martial lawbut he refused to wade into the domestic political turmoil that has gripped the United States’ close ally.
To recall the common challenges that go beyond the political framework of the South, North Korea On Monday, he fired a ballistic missile into the sea as Blinken held meetings in Seoul, prompting him to rebuke Pyongyang and its ally Russia.
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Blinken and his South Korean counterpart Cho Tae-yul condemned the launch at a joint news conference, with Washington’s top diplomat calling it “another violation of multiple UN Security Council resolutions.”
Blinken says Russia could provide North with ‘advanced’ space technology
The outgoing diplomat also took aim at Russia, saying Moscow was expanding space cooperation with Pyongyang.
“The DPRK is already receiving Russian military equipment and training. We now have reason to believe that Moscow intends to share advanced space and satellite technologies with Pyongyang,” he said at the press conference.
His warning echoed concerns first raised by officials more than a year agobefore North Korea began, provided weapons and, later, even troops, to help Vladimir Putin continue his war effort in Ukraine.
Since then, the United States and South Korea say Kim Jong Un sent at least 10,000 people. North Korean soldiers to reinforce Putin’s forceswho are exhausted after almost three years of intense fighting in eastern Ukraine and, more recently, in the Russian border region of Kursk, which Ukrainian forces invaded late last year.
After the North Korean missile traveled about 680 miles before falling into the sea on Monday, Seoul said it had “strengthened surveillance and vigilance” in preparation for further launches. Seoul was also “in close coordination with the United States and Japan” regarding the launch, the South Korean military added.
US, South Korea strengthen ties amid changing leadership
The test comes two weeks before the inauguration of President-elect Donald Trump, who during his final term sought to woo North Korea with unique personal diplomacy.
Blinken reiterated Washington’s “unwavering commitment” to defending South Korea and spoke with Deputy Prime Minister and Acting President Choi Sang-mok about “how the two sides will work together to further strengthen bilateral and trilateral cooperation with Japan,” the State Department said. said.
Until he briefly imposed martial law on Dec. 3, Yoon was a darling of President Joe Biden’s administration for his pro-U.S. policies on the world stage. He has delighted the United States by seeking to turn the page on decades of friction with Japan, another U.S. ally that is also home to thousands of American troops.
Yoon joined Biden and then-Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida in 2023 for a historic three-way summit at the Camp David presidential retreat, which included a promise to step up intelligence cooperation on Korea from the North. Choi’s office said in a statement that South Korea remains committed to the “principles and agreements of the Camp David summit.”
The acting president “said that South Korea will continue to uphold its diplomatic and security policies based on a strong alliance between South Korea and the United States and trilateral cooperation between South Korea, the United States and the United States.” United and Japan.”
South Korea’s progressive opposition, which made Yoon’s life miserable in Parliament and has been increasingly ascendant since the president took power, has historically taken a tougher line on Japan.
Opposition leader Lee Jae-myung – who himself faces disqualification in a court case – also favors greater diplomatic openness with North Korea than hawkish Yoon.
The unrest and lack of a clear leader in Asia’s fourth-largest economy comes just as the United States is in the midst of its own political transition.
While Mr Biden has focused on developing US alliances, Trump, who takes office on January 20, has rejected what he sees as unfair commitments from Washington. Trump said during his last presidential campaign that if he were in power, he would force South Korea to pay $10 billion a year for the U.S. troop presence, nearly 10 times what it currently contributes.
But paradoxically, Trump has built ties with South Korea’s last progressive president, Moon Jae-in, who encouraged his attempts to strike deals with North Korea.
Trump, who once threatened “fire and fury” against North Korea, later met three times with leader Kim Jong Un and said they “fell in love.”
Blinken says truce between Israel and Hamas may not happen under Biden
Blinken said Monday he was confident a Gaza ceasefire deal would be reached, but perhaps after President Joe Biden leaves office on Jan. 20. Blinken, who tried repeatedly and unsuccessfully last year to broker a ceasefire between Hamas and Israel, said the Biden administration would “work every minute of every day” until the end of his mandate to obtain an agreement to release the hostages.
“We really want to cross the finish line in the next couple of weeks,” Blinken told reporters in Seoul. “If we don’t manage to cross the finish line in the next couple of weeks, I’m confident it will be completed at some point, hopefully sooner rather than later. When it does, it will be based on the plan presented by President Biden and which virtually the entire world supports.
Trump pledged even stronger support for Israel and warned Hamas of “hell to pay” if it does not release the 100 hostages still believed to be held in Gaza more than a year after the attack Hamas terrorist attack on October 7, 2023. Israeli officials estimate that about two-thirds of the remaining hostages are still alive.
A Hamas official said Sunday that the group was ready to release 34 hostages in the “first phase” of a possible deal with Israel, who said indirect talks had resumed in Qatar.
Blinken said there had been “intensified engagement” by Hamas to reach a deal, but that it had not yet been finalized.
“We need Hamas to make the final decisions necessary to finalize the deal and fundamentally change the situation for the hostages, getting them out, for the people of Gaza, providing them with relief, and for the region as a whole, creating an opportunity to actually move forward toward something better,” Blinken said.
Blinken has made 12 visits to the Middle East since Hamas’ massive attack in southern Israel on Oct. 7, which saw the group kill some 1,200 people and take 251 more captive.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu responded by immediately launching a relentless military campaign in Gaza, which health authorities in the Hamas-controlled Palestinian territory say has killed more than 45,000 people, decimated all of the enclave’s infrastructure and forced virtually all its inhabitants to leave their homes.