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Russian attack on Ukraine emboldened North Korea - South Korean minister

Reuters WORLD
Published February 18,2023
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South Korean Foreign Minister Park Jin meets U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken at the Sokha Hotel in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Friday, August 5, 2022. (REUTERS File Photo)

South Korean Foreign Minister Park Jin said on Saturday that Russia's attack on Ukraine and the global attention on that war had emboldened North Korea which launched a long-range ballistic missile into the sea off Japan's west coast earlier in the day.

The missile launch - North Korea's first since Jan. 1 - clearly signalled "its intent to conduct additional provocations", Park said at a panel during a global security conference in Munich, Germany.

"Going further, if North Korea conducts the seventh nuclear test, which could happen at any time, it will be a game changer, in the sense that North Korea could develop and deploy tactical nuclear missiles," he added.