SEOUL: North Korea on Monday fired a missile as US Secretary of State Antony Blinken visited South Korea, where he warned Pyongyang was working ever more closely with Russia on advanced space technology.
Blinken’s trip came as investigators were trying to arrest conservative 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.
The missile flew around 1,100 kilometres (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 increased three-way 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 US top diplomat warned that Russia was stepping up support for North Korea as a reward for its help fighting Ukraine.
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.
Blinken 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 global consensus that Pyongyang must end its programme.
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 heads later Monday, Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba voiced alarm that North Korea’s “technology has been improving”.
The nuclear envoys of South Korea, the US and Japan also held a phone call Monday to condemn the launch, the news agency Yonhap said.
The test comes two weeks before the inauguration of US President-elect Donald Trump, who in his last term sought to woo North Korea with a unique personal diplomacy.
Trump, who once threatened “fire and fury” against North Korea, went on to meet three times with leader Kim Jong Un 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 programme.
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