LIMA: President Joe Biden is gathering South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol and Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba for talks Friday amid heightened concerns about North Korea’s growing military partnership with Russia and Pyongyang’s stepped-up cadence of ballistic missile tests.
The meeting on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Peru comes as North Korea has deployed thousands of troops to Russia to help Moscow try to claw back land in the Kursk border region that Ukraine seized earlier this year.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un also ordered a series of ballistic missile tests in the lead-up to this month’s U.S. election and is claiming progress on efforts to build capability to strike the U.S. mainland.
White House officials are concerned that Pyongyang could be dialed up for more provocative action ahead of President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration and the early days of his administration.
“I do not think we can count on a period of quiet with the DPRK,” said White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan, using the initials for North Korea’s formal name. “The possibility of a seventh nuclear test remains ever present and something we’re vigilant for. The transitions have historically been time periods when the DPRK has taken provocative actions both before and after the transition from one president to a new president.”
The introduction of North Korean troops to the Russia-Ukraine conflict comes as Moscow has seen a favorable shift in momentum in the grinding war on its neighbor. Trump has signaled that he could push Ukraine to agree to give up some land seized by Russia to find an end to the conflict.
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Up to 12,000 North Korean troops have been sent to Russia, according to U.S., South Korean and Ukrainian intelligence assessments.
