During his visit to Seoul, Blinken discussed North Korea’s missile test, Putin-Kim relations, Israel-Hamas ceasefire talks

Seoul — North Korea conducted a ballistic missile test on Monday as U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken visited South Korea, warning that Pyongyang was working more closely with Russia on advanced space technology. Blinken also said that he believes that the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas will end The war in Gazait cannot happen after President Biden’s term brings back President-elect Donald Trump.

Blinken visited Seoul, as did the investigators conservative president tries to arrest Yoon Suk Yeolstationed at his residence after impeachment for failure attempt to impose martial lawbut he refused to be drawn into the domestic political turmoil surrounding a close US ally.

Recalling the common problems beyond the politics of the South, North Korea On Monday, Blinken fired a ballistic missile into the sea while holding meetings in Seoul, prompting him to rebuke Pyongyang and its ally Russia.

Both Blinken and his South Korean counterpart, Cho Tae-yul, condemned the missile launch at a joint press conference, which Washington’s top diplomat called “yet another violation of multiple UN Security Council resolutions.”

Blinken says Russia could provide the North with “advanced” space technology

The outgoing diplomat also targeted Russia, saying that Moscow is expanding space cooperation with Pyongyang.

“The DPRK already receives Russian military equipment and training. Now we have reason to believe that Moscow intends to share advanced space and satellite technologies with Pyongyang,” he said at a press conference.

His warning echoed concerns first raised by officials more than a year agoBefore it began, North Korea provided arms and later even troops to aid Vladimir Putin’s ongoing war effort in Ukraine.

Since then, the United States and South Korea say Kim Jong Un has sent at least 10,000 people North Korean soldiers will help bolster Putin’s forcesThey have lost weight after nearly three years of heavy fighting in eastern Ukraine and, more recently, in the Russian border region of Kursk, which Ukrainian forces occupied late last year.

After a North Korean missile flew about 680 miles before crashing into the sea on Monday, Seoul said it was “intensifying surveillance and vigilance” for more launches. The South’s military added that Seoul is also “coordinating closely with the US and Japan” regarding the launch.

US and South Korea stress ties amid leadership change

The test comes two weeks before the inauguration of President-elect Donald Trump, who has sought to engage North Korea with his unique brand of personal diplomacy during his last term in office.

Blinken reiterated Washington’s “ironclad commitment” to defend South Korea and spoke with Vice Prime Minister and Acting President Choi Sang-mok about “how both sides will work together to further strengthen bilateral cooperation and trilateral cooperation with Japan,” the State Department said. he said in a statement.

Until martial law was briefly imposed on December 3, Yoon was a favorite of President Joe Biden’s administration for his pro-US policies on the global stage. It delighted the United States by turning the page on decades of friction with Japan, a U.S. counterpart that is home to thousands of U.S. troops.

Yoon joined Biden and then-Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida in a landmark trilateral summit that included a pledge to step up intelligence cooperation on North Korea at the 2023 Camp David retreat of the presidents. Choi’s office said in a statement that South Korea remains committed to the “principles and agreements of the Camp David summit.”

“South Korea will continue its diplomatic and security policy based on the strong Korea-US alliance and trilateral cooperation between South Korea, the US and Japan,” the acting president said.

South Korea’s progressive opposition, which made Yoon’s life miserable from parliament and has been on the rise since the president took power, has historically taken a harder line against Japan.

Opposition leader Lee Jae-myung – himself facing disqualification in court – favors more diplomatic assistance with North Korea than the hawkish Yun.

The turmoil and lack of a clear leader in Asia’s fourth-largest economy comes as the United States is in the midst of its own political transition.

While Mr. Biden has focused on developing U.S. alliances, Trump, who took office on January 20, rejects what he sees as Washington’s unfair commitments. Trump said during the last presidential election that, if he were in power, he would pay heavily armed South Korea $10 billion a year for the presence of US troops, nearly 10 times what it is contributing now.

Paradoxically, however, Trump has reached out to South Korea’s last progressive president, Moon Jae-in, who has encouraged efforts to strike a deal with North Korea.

Trump, who once threatened North Korea with “fire and fury,” has met leader Kim Jong Un three times and said they are “in love.”

Blinken says an Israel-Hamas truce may not happen under Biden

Blinken expressed confidence Monday that a Gaza ceasefire deal would come together, but likely after President Joe Biden leaves office on January 20. work every minute of every day until the end of the contract to secure the release of hostages.

“We want to get this to the finish line in the next two weeks,” Blinken told reporters in Seoul. “If we don’t get it to the finish line in the next two weeks, I’m sure it will be done at some point, hopefully sooner rather than later. A plan that President Biden has put forward and virtually the entire world supports.”

Trump has pledged even stronger support for Israel and threatened Hamas with “hell to pay” if it does not release nearly 100 hostages believed to be still being held in Gaza more than a year after Hamas’s October 7, 2023, terrorist attack. warned about. Israeli officials believe about two-thirds of the remaining hostages are still alive.

A Hamas official said on Sunday that the group was ready to release 34 hostages in the “first phase” of a potential deal with Israel, which Qatar said had resumed indirect talks.

Blinken said Hamas had “intensified contact” to reach an agreement, but that it was not yet complete.

“We need Hamas to make the final necessary decisions to complete the deal and to fundamentally change the situation for the hostages, to get them out, for the people in Gaza, to help them and to fundamentally change the situation for the region as a whole. move on to something better,” Blinken said.

Blinken has made 12 trips to the Middle East since the October 7 mass attack by Hamas in southern Israel. In this attack, the group killed 1200 people and captured 251 people.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu immediately responded by launching a brutal military campaign in Gaza that, according to health officials in the Hamas-run Palestinian territory, has killed more than 45,000 people, destroyed the enclave’s entire infrastructure and displaced nearly all its residents.