U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken pledged Tuesday to do “everything” to cut off North Korea’s support for Russia amid the war in Ukraine, as Russian President Vladimir Putin is set to hold a summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in Pyongyang this week.
Blinken made the remarks as Putin and Kim are scheduled to hold a summit in the North Korean capital on Wednesday (Korea time) amid growing concerns about security implications of their countries’ deepening military cooperation.
“We’ll continue to do everything we can to cut off the support that countries, like Iran and North Korea, are providing,” the secretary said during a press conference after his meeting with North Atlantic Treaty Organization Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg in Washington.
Washington has revealed that the North provided Russia with more than 11,000 containers of munitions and related material and dozens of ballistic missiles for use in Ukraine.
Blinken reiterated that Russia is trying “in desperation” to develop and stre
ngthen relations with countries that can provide it with what it needs to continue the war in Ukraine, while criticizing China’s support for Russia’s defense industrial base and Iran’s provision of drones to Russia.
“We are very much concerned about this because this is what’s keeping the war going,” the secretary said, accusing China of “fueling the biggest security threat to Europe as a whole since the end of the Cold War.”
“The fastest way to end the war is for Putin to be disabused of the notion that he can outlast Ukraine and outlast all of Ukraine’s supporters, but also if he knows that the fuel he needs for his war machine won’t be there anymore,” he added.
Stoltenberg pointed out that Putin’s trip to the North “confirms the very close alignment between Russia and authoritarian states,” and underscores that security is a “global” issue.
“What happens in Europe matters for Asia. What happens in Asia matters for us. And this is clearly demonstrated in Ukraine, where Iran, North Korea and China are pr
opping up, fueling Russia’s war aggression against Ukraine,” he said.
“So this idea that we can divide security into regional theaters doesn’t work anymore. Everything is intertwined, and therefore we need to address these challenges together.”
The planned summit between Kim and Putin is being carefully watched by Seoul, Washington and others as it could further accelerate their cooperation in defense and other areas.
Yuri Ushakov, Putin’s foreign policy aide, has told Russia’s news agency TASS that the summit may produce a treaty on a “comprehensive strategic partnership,” a document likely to cement the bilateral partnership at a time of their isolation on the global stage.
Source: Yonhap News Agency