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| ▲ U.S. Ambassador to South Korea Philip Goldberg delivers his address at the Chey Institute for Advanced Studies in Seoul on Sept. 5, 2023. (Yonhap) |
US envoy-NK-Russia
Efforts by N. Korea, Russia to seek closer military ties stem from increasing isolation: U.S. envoy
By Yi Wonju
SEOUL, Sept. 5 (Yonhap) -- The U.S. ambassador in Seoul on Tuesday said North Korea and Russia appear to have sought closer military ties because they were increasingly isolated from the international community and have difficulty in gaining access to supplies due to global sanctions.
Ambassador Philip Goldberg made the remarks during a lecture in Seoul when asked for comments on North Korean leader Kim Jong-un's reported plan to visit Russia to discuss providing weapons and to address concerns about a strengthened trilateral cooperation between South Korea, the United States and Japan following their landmark summit at the Camp David presidential retreat.
"I think what we have been seeing with (Russian Defense Minister Sergei) Shoigu's visit and talk about military equipment, or military assets, going in both directions, is unique to the Russia and North Korea situation," he said. "They're both isolated states, without ability to really access anything in the world due to sanctions and their own activities."
On Monday, Seoul's spy agency said Russia had proposed conducting three-way naval exercises with North Korea and China when Shoigu held a meeting with Kim in late July. The New York Times also reported Kim may travel to Vladivostok next week to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin and discuss a possible arms deal.
"So I think that you have to see the Russia-North Korea connection in that light, as opposed to a trilateral forming with China," he added. "I think China has its own interests, regardless of what might have been described as an unlimited friendship with Russia at one point, and has been more restrained, especially with regard to Ukraine."
Goldberg then stressed that the latest reports on North Korea-Russia relations has "more to do with" North Korea and Putin's increasing isolation, evident in his reluctance to attend international meetings abroad "for fear of being arrested."
"So that is I think the origins of that particular issue at the moment," he said.
He also called for the "serious" implementation of U.N. Security Council resolutions, especially on North Korea's cryptocurrency theft and illicit cyber activities.
On recent summit documents signed by leaders of South Korea, the U.S. and Japan at Camp David, the ambassador stressed that the agreements are "far-reaching" and "durable," when asked whether political changes in the future could weaken the trilateral agreement.
"They set up not just regular meetings between our presidents and prime minister, and the meetings of our foreign ministers and national security advisers, but also our commerce secretary and her minister counterparts. That is something that becomes what we would say is institutionalizing these relationships," he said.
President Yoon Suk Yeol and his U.S. and Japanese counterparts, Joe Biden and Fumio Kishida, respectively, adopted a series of documents during their historic summit at Camp David in Maryland, pledging to immediately consult one another in the event of common threats, hold annual joint military exercises and cooperate closely for stronger missile defense against North Korea.
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