SEOUL, Jan 6, 2025 (BSS/AFP) - Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Monday that the United States believed Russia was expanding space cooperation with North Korea in exchange for its troop contribution in fighting Ukraine.

"The DPRK is already receiving Russian military equipment and training. Now we have reason to believe that Moscow intends to share advanced space and satellite technology with Pyongyang," Blinken told a news conference in Seoul, using the North's official name.

Repeating an assertion recently made by the US ambassador to the United Nations, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, Blinken said that the United States also believed that Russia "may be close" to formally accepting North Korea's status as a nuclear power. 

The assertion came as North Korea test-fired a missile just as Blinken was visiting the US ally.