Secretary of State Antony Blinken accused North Korea of “growing and dangerous military cooperation with Russia” during a visit to South Korea on Thursday, urging communist China — a top ally to both Pyongyang and Moscow — to “play a constructive role” in reducing tensions.
North Korea has long been a low-priority conflict for the administration of President Joe Biden, whose only major policy initiative on the topic has been the signing of the “Washington Declaration,” an agreement with South Korea that increases military engagements with Seoul. Biden signed the declaration after conservative South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol publicly suggested South Korea could pursue its own nuclear weapons arsenal to protect itself from an attack by the communist North. The most irritating agreement in the Washington Declaration to North Korea was the return of American nuclear submarines to South Korea, which has prompted regular threats of world war and general destruction from the country.
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America and North Korea are technically at war, as are South Korea and China, as a result of neither coalition in the Korean War signing a surrender or peace treaty. The war began in 1950 and active hostilities ended with a tentative armistice agreement in 1953, the basis upon which American troops remain in South Korea.
Outside of the direct conflict between America and North Korea, Blinken raised concerns during his visit this week regarding reports that North Korea is aiding Russia in its ongoing invasion of Ukraine. North Korea’s communist dictator Kim Jong-un completed a much-touted visit to Russia this year and held extended talks with strongman Vladimir Putin. Kim also welcomed Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu in July and gave him a tour of a North Korean weapons exhibition experts suggested was an attempt to show off the country’s catalog of weapons for sale.
Blinken was in South Korea on Thursday as part of a whirlwind tour that also includes stops in India and Japan. Prior to his travels in Asia, the secretary of state made several stops in the Middle East — in Turkey, Jordan, and Israel — to discuss the aftermath of the October 7 mass murder of over 1,400 civilians in Israel at the hands of the genocidal jihadist organization Hamas.
“We share profound concerns about the DPRK’s [North Korea] growing and dangerous military cooperation with Russia,” Blinken said on Thursday, referring to himself and South Korean Foreign Minister Park Jin, who attended a press conference alongside the visiting diplomat. “Today, Minister Park and I spoke about further actions that our countries can take with partners to intensify pressure on Moscow not to transfer military technology to the DPRK, in violation of multiple UN Security Council resolutions.”
“The Security Council will be a critical forum for these efforts, and we support Korea’s clear vision for its upcoming term, including its focus on enforcing DPRK sanctions,” he added. South Korea will receive a temporary seat at the Security Council in 2024.
Asked about potential cooperation between North Korea and Russia aiding the Russian effort to colonize Ukraine, Blinken said Washington believes North Korea is selling military equipment to the Putin regime meant to be used in Ukraine, “but we’re also seeing Russia provide technology and support to the DPRK for its own military programs.”
“And that’s a real concern for the security of the Korean Peninsula, it’s a real concern for global nonproliferation regimes, it’s a real concern for the Russian aggression in Ukraine, and a real concern for its violation of multiple UN Security Council resolutions,” he added.
Blinken suggested that the issue of North Korea destabilizing both east Asia and other parts of the world had arisen in conversations with the Chinese Communist Party and expressed optimism that China could help relieve tensions, despite its position as North Korea’s closest ally.
“We pointed out that to the extent that China values and places a premium on stability in the region, well, North Korea is the greatest source of instability,” Blinken said. “China has a unique relationship with North Korea; as a result of that relationship, it has real influence, and we do look to China to use that influence to play a constructive role in pulling North Korea back from its irresponsible and dangerous behavior.”
Park, the South Korean foreign minister, suggested that China should act to prevent further engagement between Russia and North Korea because it does not benefit China’s national interests.
“The growing closeness between these two countries and arms dealings between these two countries is not something that China would like to see,” Park suggested. “Due to the war in Ukraine, there is a security crisis that’s unfolding in Europe and in Northeast Asia between the DPRK and Russia.”
“If there is going to be arms dealings that would contribute to heightening tensions on this part of the world, that would definitely not help China and it’s not going to promote its interests,” he continued. “Therefore, China needs to understand the concerns of neighboring countries as well as the concerns of the international community so that such dangerous dealings and transactions should – would not take place.”
Park also called for China to “play a role,” but did not describe that potential role as “constructive.”
China vocally objected to Blinken’s presence in Asia at all via its state media organs, expressing no interest in “constructive” actions toward building peace.
“China is able to play a positive role on the Korean Peninsula issue, but it is disappointing to see that the US views the Korean Peninsula issue with a Cold War mentality, in which confrontation is emphasized,” China’s state-run Global Times propaganda newspaper proclaimed on Thursday. The Times cited regime-approved alleged “experts” who dismissed military cooperation between North Korea and Russia as “unverified claims.” In reality, North Korean state media boasted of Kim’s meetings with Shoigu and Russian media reported extensively on the “gifts” that Kim received while in Russia in September, including a fleet of kamikaze drones and a Geran-25 reconnaissance drone.
Putin himself denied that gifting Kim military drones was a violation of Security Council restrictions on military deals with North Korea.
The “experts” in the Global Times also insisted that the only way to curtail incessant North Korean belligerence is for America, Japan, and South Korea to all “remove or reduce their military threats against North Korea and resolve the regional disputes through peaceful negotiations.”
The Global Times notably also reported on Thursday that, the day before Blinken’s meetings in South Korea, Beijing had sent a delegation led by senior Chinese military officer Zhang Youxia to discuss “safeguarding world prosperity and stability with joined hands” with Russian strongman Vladimir Putin.
“Cooperation between the two militaries has developed with a sound momentum and achieved fruitful results, Putin told Zhang,” according to the Global Times, “and Russia is willing to upgrade the level of practical cooperation between the two countries and the two militaries.”