U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken called out North Korea for “systematic and widespread” human rights abuses on Wednesday during his first-ever visit to Seoul under his new title.

Blinken, who touched down in South Korea just hours apart from U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin on March 17, also spoke of North Korea's "authoritarian regime" and emphasized that Seoul and Washington have an "unwavering, ironclad" alliance in a meeting with South Korean foreign minister Chung Eui-yong, according to a transcript provided by the U.S. State Department.