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US, South Korea, Japan Raise Concerns over Russia-North Korea Military Cooperation

A handout photo made available by South Korean Foreign Ministry shows (L-R) US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Japanese Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa, and South Korean Foreign Minister Park Jin posing for a photo during a meeting in New York, USA 22 September 2023. (EPA/South Korean Foreign Ministry)
A handout photo made available by South Korean Foreign Ministry shows (L-R) US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Japanese Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa, and South Korean Foreign Minister Park Jin posing for a photo during a meeting in New York, USA 22 September 2023. (EPA/South Korean Foreign Ministry)
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US, South Korea, Japan Raise Concerns over Russia-North Korea Military Cooperation

A handout photo made available by South Korean Foreign Ministry shows (L-R) US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Japanese Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa, and South Korean Foreign Minister Park Jin posing for a photo during a meeting in New York, USA 22 September 2023. (EPA/South Korean Foreign Ministry)
A handout photo made available by South Korean Foreign Ministry shows (L-R) US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Japanese Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa, and South Korean Foreign Minister Park Jin posing for a photo during a meeting in New York, USA 22 September 2023. (EPA/South Korean Foreign Ministry)

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and South Korean, Japanese counterparts expressed "serious concern" over the discussion of military cooperation between Russia and North Korea, including possible arms trade, South Korea's Foreign Ministry said on Saturday.

Blinken, South Korea's Foreign Minister Park Jin and Japan's Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa agreed to respond firmly to any acts that threaten regional security in violation of UN Security Council resolution in a brief meeting on Friday, the ministry said in a statement.

North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un made a weeklong visit to Russia last week and discussed military cooperation with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

US and South Korean officials have expressed concern that the summit was aimed at allowing Russia to acquire ammunition from the North to supplement its dwindling stocks for its war in Ukraine.

South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol said on Wednesday that if Russia helped North Korea enhance its weapons programs in return for assistance for its war in Ukraine, it would be "a direct provocation" and Seoul and its allies would not stand idly by.

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Azerbaijan Pays Tribute to Pilots, Passengers who Perished in Air Crash

People carry a coffin with the body of a victim of the Azerbaijan Airlines' Embraer passenger plane crash near the Kazakh city of Aktau, upon the arrival at an airport in Baku, Azerbaijan, December 28, 2024. REUTERS/Aziz Karimov
People carry a coffin with the body of a victim of the Azerbaijan Airlines' Embraer passenger plane crash near the Kazakh city of Aktau, upon the arrival at an airport in Baku, Azerbaijan, December 28, 2024. REUTERS/Aziz Karimov
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Azerbaijan Pays Tribute to Pilots, Passengers who Perished in Air Crash

People carry a coffin with the body of a victim of the Azerbaijan Airlines' Embraer passenger plane crash near the Kazakh city of Aktau, upon the arrival at an airport in Baku, Azerbaijan, December 28, 2024. REUTERS/Aziz Karimov
People carry a coffin with the body of a victim of the Azerbaijan Airlines' Embraer passenger plane crash near the Kazakh city of Aktau, upon the arrival at an airport in Baku, Azerbaijan, December 28, 2024. REUTERS/Aziz Karimov

Azerbaijan on Sunday paid tribute to the pilots and passengers of the Azerbaijan Airlines passenger plane that crashed in Kazakhstan killing 38 people after Russian air defenses were used against Ukrainian drones.

Flight J2-8243 crashed on Wednesday in a ball of fire near the city of Aktau in Kazakhstan after diverting from southern Russia where Ukrainian drones were attacking several cities.

Captain Igor Kshnyakin and co-pilot Alexander Kalyaninov, both ethnic Russians with Azerbaijan citizenship, and Hokuma Aliyeva, a flight attendant, were given full honors at a ceremony at the Alley of Honor in central Baku attended by President Ilham Aliyev and his wife, Mehriban.

The pilots have been lauded in Azerbaijan for landing in a way which allowed 29 people to survive but led to their own deaths.

Azerbaijan's presidential office said that after the yet-to-be explained incident over Russian airspace, the pilots battled to control the plane - desperately trying to find a landing spot, Reuters reported.

With holes in the fuselage, some crew injured, passengers praying for their lives in a de-pressurized cabin and the plane spiraling out of control, the pilots flew across the Caspian Sea towards their death in an crash landing.
"Only through the courage and professionalism of the pilots was an emergency landing successfully carried out," Azerbaijan's presidential office said.
The Alley of Honor is Azerbaijan's most sacred modern burial ground - where prominent politicians, poets and scientists are laid to rest, including Heydar Aliyev, the late father of the current president.
Captain Kshnyakin's daughter, Anastasia Kshnyakina, said her father was a dedicated pilot who took his responsibilities to his passengers extremely seriously.
"My father always said: when I take off, I am responsible not only for my life, but also for the lives of all passengers and crew members," Kshnyakina said.
"With his last flight, he proved what a true hero should be."
Russia's Vladimir Putin on Saturday apologized to Azerbaijan's president for a "tragic incident" in Russian airspace involving the plane which Baku said crashed after some sort of external interference.
Four sources with knowledge of the preliminary findings of Azerbaijan's investigation into the disaster told Reuters on Thursday that Russian air defenses had mistakenly shot it down.
The extremely rare publicized apology from Putin was the closest Moscow has come to accepting some blame for Wednesday's disaster, although the Kremlin statement did not say Russia had shot down the plane, only noting that a criminal case had been opened.
The Embraer passenger jet had flown from Azerbaijan's capital Baku to Grozny, in Russia's southern Chechnya region, before veering off hundreds of miles across the Caspian Sea.