South Korea, the U.S. and Japan strongly condemned what they call North Korea\u2019s supply of munitions and military equipment to Russia, saying Thursday that such weapons shipments sharply increase the human toll of Russia\u2019s war in Ukraine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A joint statement by the top diplomats of South Korea, the U.S. and Japan came days after Russia\u2019s foreign minister scoffed<\/strong> at a recent U.S. claim that his country received munitions from North Korea, saying that Washington has failed to prove the allegation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe will continue to work together with the international community to expose Russia\u2019s attempts to acquire military equipment from (North Korea),\u201d said the joint statement by South Korean Foreign Minister Park Jin, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Japanese Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cSuch weapons deliveries, several of which we now confirm have been completed, will significantly increase the human toll of Russia\u2019s war of aggression,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The joint statement was meant to show the three countries\u2019 resolve to actively respond to a weapons transfer deal that Russia and North Korea have been pursuing in defiance of repeated warnings by the international community, South Korean Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lim Soosuk told reporters. <\/p>\n\n\n\n North Korea and Russia \u2014 both locked in separate confrontations with the U.S. and its allies \u2014 have recently taken steps to strengthen their military ties. Speculation about North Korea\u2019s provision of conventional arms to refill Russia\u2019s exhausted weapons stores flared last month, when North Korean leader Kim Jong Un traveled to Russia\u2019s Far East to meet President Vladimir Putin and visit key military facilities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The U.S., South Korea and others believe North Korea seeks to receive sophisticated weapons technologies from Russia to enhance its nuclear program in exchange for its munitions supply.<\/p>\n\n\n\n During his visit to Pyongyang last week, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said in a reception speech that Russia valued North Korea\u2019s \u201cunwavering\u201d support<\/strong> for its war on Ukraine. After returning to Moscow, Lavrov dismissed the U.S. accusation of the North Korean arms transfers, saying that \u201cthe Americans keep accusing everyone.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI don\u2019t comment on rumors,\u201d he said, according to Russian state media.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Earlier this month, the White House said that North Korea had delivered more than 1,000 containers of military equipment<\/strong> and munitions to Russia. The White House released images that it said showed the containers were loaded onto a Russian-flagged ship before being moved via train to southwestern Russia. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Thursday\u2019s Seoul-Washington-Tokyo statement said the three countries are closely monitoring for any materials that Russia provides to North Korea in support of the North\u2019s military objectives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe are deeply concerned about the potential for any transfer of nuclear- or ballistic missile-related technology to (North Korea),\u201d the statement said. It noted arms transfers to and from North Korea would violate U.N. Security Council resolutions, which Russia, a permanent Security Council member, previously voted for. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Since last year, North Korea has performed more than 100 missile tests, many of them designed to simulate nuclear attacks on South Korea and the U.S. Experts say Russia\u2019s provision of high-tech weapons technologies would help Kim build much more reliable nuclear weapons systems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Among the military assets North Korea reportedly wants to manufacture with Russian assistance are spy satellites. Two recent North Korean attempts to place a spy satellite into orbit failed<\/strong> for technical reasons, and North Korea vowed a third launch in October. But South Korea\u2019s Unification Ministry said Thursday there have been no signs of an impending launch at the North\u2019s main launch facility.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In response to North Korea\u2019s growing nuclear capability, the U.S. and South Korea have been expanding their regular military drills and restoring some trilateral training involving Japan. Earlier this week, the South Korean, U.S. and Japanese militaries conducted their first-ever trilateral aerial exercise near the Korean Peninsula.<\/p>\n\n\n\n On Thursday, South Korea\u2019s navy said it has been holding a large-scale maritime drill off the Korean Peninsula\u2019s west coast this week as part of broader annual military training. This year\u2019s maritime drill, which involves live-firing exercises, drew U.S. military helicopters and patrol aircraft as well, according to a navy statement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n North Korea didn\u2019t immediately comment on the drill. But it has previously slammed U.S-South Korean exercises as invasion rehearsals and responded with missile tests.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" South Korea, the U.S. and Japan strongly condemned what they call North Korea\u2019s supply of munitions and military equipment to Russia, saying Thursday that such weapons shipments sharply increase the human toll of Russia\u2019s war in Ukraine. A joint statement by the top diplomats of South Korea, the U.S. and Japan came days after Russia\u2019s foreign […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":39288,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_post_source_name":"","_post_source_url":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[11363,8311,5522,11394,6044,5663,12310,11858,5345,12773,10954,5252,2959,9326,7749,8562,6690,6843,5572,5254,5340,12187,10349,7964,5253,6666,10165,11057,11542,3805,71,3457,5217,7050,9205,5655,5752,8370,6815,5250,7185,10553,10041,7422,10907,10236,6675,1705,9616,5180,5465,9262,694,5251,2354,5724,6571,2982,10415],"class_list":["post-39286","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world-news","tag-aircraft","tag-antony-blinken","tag-arms","tag-attacks","tag-blinken","tag-diplomats","tag-exercise","tag-flagged","tag-foreign-minister","tag-increase","tag-international","tag-invasion","tag-japan","tag-japanese","tag-kim-jong","tag-kim-jong-un","tag-korea","tag-lavrov","tag-military","tag-missile","tag-moscow","tag-n","tag-navy","tag-north","tag-north-korea","tag-nuclear","tag-nuclear-program","tag-nuclear-weapons","tag-orbit","tag-president","tag-putin","tag-russia","tag-russian","tag-russian-foreign-minister-sergey-lavrov","tag-satellite","tag-security","tag-security-council","tag-seoul","tag-sergey-lavrov","tag-ship","tag-south-korea","tag-south-korean","tag-speech","tag-spy","tag-spy-satellite","tag-tech","tag-technology","tag-tokyo","tag-train","tag-ukraine","tag-un","tag-united-states","tag-vladimir-putin","tag-war","tag-washington","tag-weapons","tag-white","tag-white-house","tag-work"],"blocksy_meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39286","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39286"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39286\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":39289,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39286\/revisions\/39289"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39288"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39286"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39286"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39286"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}