North Korea fires missile as Blinken meets South Korean officials

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken meets South Korea’s Acting President Choi Sang-mok successful Seoul.

North Korea has fired a ballistic rocket into the oversea astatine the aforesaid clip the apical United States diplomat was holding meetings successful the South Korean capital, Seoul.

South Korea’s subject said the rocket was launched eastward astatine astir noon (03:00 GMT) soon aft US Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with South Korean Acting President Choi Sang-mok.

“Our subject detected 1 projectile presumed to beryllium an intermediate-range ballistic missile,” the subject said.

After the rocket flew astir 1,100km (680 miles), earlier landing successful waters betwixt the Korean Peninsula and Japan, the subject said Seoul “strengthened surveillance and vigilance” for immoderate much launches.

The rocket appeared to person fallen into the water, according to Japan. Seoul was “in adjacent coordination with the US and Japan” astir the launch, the South’s subject added.

Japan’s Ministry of Defense said the rocket landed extracurricular its exclusive economical portion and that determination were nary reports of harm to vessels oregon aircraft.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, left, is escorted by South Korean Foreign Minister Cho Tae-yul successful Seoul, South Korea [Lee Jin-man/Pool via Reuters]

Both Blinken and South Korean Foreign Minister Cho Tae-yul condemned the motorboat astatine a associated quality conference, with Washington’s apical diplomat calling it “another usurpation of aggregate UN Security Council resolutions”.

Monday’s motorboat was Pyongyang’s archetypal since November 5 erstwhile it fired astatine slightest 7 short-range ballistic missiles disconnected its eastbound coast.

Al Jazeera’s Patrick Fok, reporting from Seoul, said the timing of the rocket firing was “significant” for respective reasons.

“It’s taking spot conscionable a mates of weeks up of Donald Trump taking bureau successful the US,” helium said. “This [missile launch] is besides important due to the fact that North Korea has been comparatively quiescent since this governmental situation [the failed coup effort successful December] has unfolded here.”

South Korean legislators past period voted to impeach President Yoon Suk Yeol and suspend him from duties aft his December 3 declaration of martial instrumentality stunned the country. Yoon’s impeachment proceedings is being heard by the Constitutional Court, portion South Korean investigators person sought a warrant to apprehension the erstwhile leader.

‘Iron-clad commitment’

The US Secretary of State reiterated the “ironclad commitment” of Washington to defending South Korea and spoke with acting President Choi astir “how some sides volition enactment unneurotic to further fortify bilateral practice and trilateral practice with Japan”, a State Department connection said.

Until concisely imposing martial instrumentality connected December 3, Yoon had been a darling of President Joe Biden’s medication for his pro-US policies connected the planetary stage.

Yoon delighted the US by seeking to crook the leafage connected decades of friction with Japan, a chap US state that is besides location to thousands of US troops.

Yoon joined Biden and Japan’s then-prime curate Fumio Kishida successful 2023 for a landmark three-way acme astatine the Camp David statesmanlike retreat that included a committedness to measurement up quality practice connected North Korea.

Choi’s bureau said successful a connection that South Korea remained committed to the “principles and agreements from the Camp David summit”.

The acting president “stated that South Korea volition proceed to support its diplomatic and information policies based connected a beardown Korea-US confederation and trilateral practice among South Korea, the US and Japan”.

North Korea and Russia cooperation

Blinken said Monday that the US believed Russia was expanding abstraction practice with North Korea successful exchange for its troop publication successful warring Ukraine.

“The DPRK [North Korea] is already receiving Russian subject instrumentality and training. Now we person crushed to judge that Moscow intends to stock precocious abstraction and outer exertion with Pyongyang,” Blinken said.

Blinken said much than 1,000 North Korean troops person been killed oregon injured successful the warfare connected Ukraine.

Moreover, Blinken said the US believed that Russia “may beryllium close” to formally accepting North Korea’s presumption arsenic a atomic power.

Source

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Al Jazeera and quality agencies