North Korea tests a missile launch as Blinken visits Seoul and talks about relations between Putin and Kim and truce talks between Israel and Hamas

Seoul North Korea on Monday launched a ballistic missile while US Secretary of State Antony Blinken was visiting South Korea where he warned that Pyongyang was working closely with Russia on advanced space technology. Blinken also said he believes a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas will end the conflict The war in GazaThis may not happen until after President Biden’s term ends The return of President-elect Donald Trump.

Blinken visited Seoul, as did the investigators Attempt to arrest conservative President Yoon Suk-yeolWho barricaded himself in his home after being removed on charges of failure Attempt to impose martial lawBut he refused to delve into the internal political turmoil that has engulfed the close US ally.

In a reminder of shared challenges that go beyond Southern politics, north korea On Monday, he fired a ballistic missile into the sea while Blinken was holding meetings in Seoul, prompting him to rebuke Pyongyang and its ally Russia.

Blinken and his South Korean counterpart, Cho Tae-yeol, condemned the launch in a joint press conference, and the top US diplomat described it as “another violation of multiple UN Security Council resolutions.”

Blinken says Russia could give North Korea “advanced” space technology.

The outgoing diplomat also criticized Russia, saying Moscow was working to expand space cooperation with Pyongyang.

“The DPRK 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,” he added at the press conference.

His warning echoed The concerns were first expressed by officials more than a year agoBefore North Korea began providing weapons, 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 troops North Korean soldiers to help support Putin’s forceswho are exhausted after nearly three years of intense fighting in eastern Ukraine, and most recently in the Russian border region of Kursk, which Ukrainian forces invaded late last year.

After the North Korean missile flew 680 miles before falling into the sea on Monday, Seoul said it had “strengthened monitoring and vigilance” for further launches. The South Korean military added that Seoul is “coordinating closely with the United States and Japan” on the launch.

US and South Korea reaffirm ties amid leadership change

The test comes two weeks before the inauguration of President-elect Donald Trump, who in his last term sought to win over North Korea with a unique kind of personal diplomacy.

Blinken reiterated Washington’s “firm commitment” to defending South Korea and spoke with Deputy Prime Minister and Acting President Choe Sang-mok about “how the two sides will work together to further enhance bilateral cooperation and trilateral cooperation with Japan,” a Foreign Ministry statement said. He said.

Until martial law was briefly imposed on December 3, Yoon was beloved by President Joe Biden’s administration for his pro-American policies on the global stage. Trump pleased the United States by seeking to turn the page on decades of friction with Japan, an ally of the United States that also hosts 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 that included a promise to boost intelligence cooperation on North Korea. Choe’s office said in a statement that South Korea remains committed to “the principles and agreements of the Camp David summit.”

The Acting President stated that South Korea will continue to maintain its diplomatic and security policies based on the strong Korea-US alliance and trilateral cooperation between South Korea, the United States and Japan.

South Korea’s progressive opposition, which made Yoon’s life miserable from parliament and which has been increasingly mounting since the president seized power, has historically taken a harder line toward Japan.

Opposition leader Lee Jae-myung – who himself faces disqualification from the election in a court case – also favors more diplomatic engagement with North Korea than the hardline Yoon.

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

While Biden has focused on nurturing US alliances, Trump, who will take 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 have forced South Korea to pay $10 billion annually for the presence of American forces, nearly 10 times what it contributes now.

But ironically, Trump struck up a relationship with South Korea’s last progressive president, Moon Jae-in, who encouraged his attempts to make deals with North Korea.

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

Blinken says that the truce between Israel and Hamas may not happen under Biden

Blinken expressed confidence on Monday that a ceasefire agreement would be reached in Gaza, but perhaps after President Joe Biden leaves office on January 20. Blinken, who repeatedly tried last year to broker a ceasefire between Hamas and Israel, said the Biden administration would do so. “Work every minute of every day” until the end of her term to secure the hostage release.

“We very much want to end this matter in the next two weeks,” Blinken told reporters in Seoul. “If we don’t get to the finish line in the next two weeks, I’m confident we will be completed at some point, hopefully sooner rather than later. And when that happens, it will be based on the plan that President Biden put forward and that almost the entire world supports.”

Trump pledged stronger support for Israel and warned Hamas of the “hell you will pay” if it does not release nearly 100 hostages believed to still be held in Gaza more than a year after the Hamas terror attack on October 7, 2023. Israeli officials believe about two-thirds of the hostages The rest are still alive.

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

Blinken said that there is “intensive participation” by Hamas to reach an agreement, but it has not yet been completed.

He added: “We need Hamas to make the final decisions necessary to complete the agreement and bring about a radical change in the conditions of the hostages and their release, and for the people in Gaza and to provide relief to them, and for the region as a whole, and to create an opportunity to reach an actual agreement.” “Moving forward toward something better,” Blinken said.

Blinken has made 12 visits to the Middle East since the massive October 7 Hamas attack on southern Israel, which saw about 1,200 people killed and 251 others captured.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu responded by immediately launching a relentless military campaign in Gaza, which health officials in the Hamas-run Palestinian territories say has killed more than 45,000 people, destroyed the entire infrastructure in the enclave and forced almost all of its residents from their homes.