Washington, Seoul hold consultations after North Korea fires intercontinental missile

The United States and South Korea are holding consultations in Washington on Thursday after the launch of an intercontinental missile by North Korea, already accused of sending thousands of troops to Russia.

US Secretary of State and Defense Antony Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin meet with their South Korean counterparts, Cho Tae-yul and Kim Yong-hyun, at the State Department.

The talks come amid heightened tensions with North Korea, which fired one of its most powerful missiles on Thursday with the stated aim of bolstering its nuclear deterrent, just days before the US presidential election on Tuesday.

The South Korean military “detected a ballistic missile launched from the Pyongyang area toward the East Sea at around 7:10 a.m. (2210 GMT Wednesday),” the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff said, using the Korean name for the Sea of ​​Japan.

The missile, according to Japan's defense minister, belongs to “the category of intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs),” which have a range of at least 5,500 kilometers and are generally designed to carry nuclear warheads.

Beijing responded to the launch by expressing concern over rising tensions between the two Koreas.

“As a close neighbor of the Korean Peninsula, China is concerned about the development of the situation,” said Lin Jian, a spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, calling for a “political resolution of the peninsula issue.”

The North Korean launch came hours after the defense chiefs of the United States and South Korea called on Pyongyang to withdraw its troops from Russia, where Washington and Seoul say some 10,000 North Korean troops have been deployed in preparation for possible action against Ukrainian forces.

Pyongyang, which has not confirmed or denied the presence of troops in Russia, confirmed the “crucial” test, part of its drive to “strengthen its nuclear forces” and overseen by its leader Kim Jong Un.

“The test launch… fully meets the objective of informing our rivals… of our readiness to retaliate,” Kim said at the launch, according to the North's state agency KCNA.

This new North Korean launch was “firmly” condemned by the White House, which denounced a “flagrant violation” of UN Security Council resolutions, as did UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. The British Foreign Office joined in the condemnations.

Under UN sanctions, Pyongyang is banned from conducting any weapons tests using ballistic missile technology.

– “Diverting attention” –

Photo released by North Korea's state news agency KCNA of Pyongyang's test of an intercontinental ballistic missile on October 31, 2024 © KCNA VIA KNS – STR

The North Korean launch “appears to have been carried out to divert attention from international criticism of its troop deployment” in Russia, Yang Moo-jin, president of the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul, told AFP.

South Korea's military warned Wednesday that the nuclear-armed North was preparing to test an intercontinental ballistic missile or even conduct a nuclear test.

North Korea typically tests its most powerful and longest-range missiles on an upward trajectory, that is, upward rather than outward, to avoid flying over neighboring countries.

“It was the longest flight time ever recorded (for a North Korean missile),” Japanese Defense Minister Gen Nakatani said.

– “Escalation” –

South Korean Defense Minister Kim Yong-hyun said the deployment of North Korean troops in Russia could “lead to an escalation of threats to the security of the Korean Peninsula.”

“The fact that such a large number of (these) troops have moved westward (from Russia, editor's note) suggests that it is unlikely that they went simply to observe,” a South Korean presidential office official also said.

The deployment also raises fears of an escalation of the conflict in Ukraine, two and a half years after Vladimir Putin launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

South Korea, a major arms exporter, has said it is exploring the possibility of sending weapons directly to Ukraine in response, something it has so far resisted due to a long-standing policy of not supplying arms to active conflicts.

North Korea has recently strengthened its military ties with Moscow, with President Putin making a rare visit to Pyongyang in June, where he signed a peace agreement mutual defense with Kim Jong Un.

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