S. Korea, U.S. agree to 'further expose' Russia's support to N. Korea amid N.K. troop deployment

▲ (From L to R) South Korean Defense Minister Kim Yong-hyun, Foreign Minister Cho Tae-yul, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin attend a press conference at the State Department on Oct. 31, 2024. (Yonhap)

S Korea-US-joint statement

S. Korea, U.S. agree to 'further expose' Russia's support to N. Korea amid N.K. troop deployment

By Kim Seung-yeon

SEOUL, Nov. 1 (Yonhap) -- South Korea and the United States have agreed to work together closely to "further expose" Russia's support to North Korea, a joint statement showed Friday, amid increasing signs of the North's troop deployment to Russia for use in the war against Ukraine.

The joint statement was issued after the allies held their "two plus two" talks among the top foreign and defense officials in Washington on Thursday (local time).

The meeting came as the U.S. said as many as 8,000 North Korean troops have been deployed to Russia's western front-line region and they are expected to be sent into combat soon.

It also came just a day after North Korea fired a new intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), a move seen as aimed at raising tensions and gaining leverage ahead of next week's U.S. presidential election.

"The Secretaries and Ministers condemned in the strongest terms deepening military cooperation between the DPRK and Russia, including continued unlawful arms transfers and the deployment of DPRK troops to Russia," the joint statement from the two plus two talks read.

DPRK is the acronym for North Korea's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

"Both sides further identified measures to address the challenges posed by increased DPRK-Russia security cooperation, resolved to closely monitor and further expose Russian support to the DPRK," the statement showed.

Since North Korea and Russia have forged closer ties, South Korea and the U.S. have accused Pyongyang of providing weapons to Moscow in support of its war aggression against Kyiv.

Attention has been drawn to what Russia would provide the North in return, with many observers saying the North's leader Kim Jong-un could possibly seek Russia's assistance in boosting its nuclear and weapons capabilities.

Urging Russia and the North to abide by international law and relevant U.N. Security Council resolutions, the South Korean and U.S. officials committed to enforcing independent sanctions regimes against the two isolated states and "actively pursue necessary measures together with the international community" to deter further destabilizing actions.

They strongly condemned the North's ICBM test conducted Thursday, and renewed the call for the North to stop its provocations.

The joint statement also said that they reaffirmed their continuing commitment to the "complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula," a phrase over which questions have arisen after the absence of reference to that goal in a joint communique of the allies' annual defense talks held earlier this week.

No mention of the denuclearization in the recent policy platforms of both U.S. Republican and Democratic parties has stoked doubt on whether the U.S. is shifting its policy focus to effectively acknowledging the North as a nuclear state and deterring its threats, rather than pursuing its denuclearization.

In the press conference following the two plus two talks on Thursday, both South Korean and U.S. officials mentioned the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula as their shared goal.

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