NATO Chief, S Korean President Discuss Concerns Over North Korea's Troop Deployment to Russia
SEOUL/BRUSSELS, Oct 21 (Bernama-Yonhap) -- South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol and the chief of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) shared concerns over North Korea's preparations to send troops to Russia for its war in Ukraine during their phone talks Monday.
Yoon held the phone talks at the request of NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte to share the latest developments in military cooperation between Pyongyang and Moscow, and discuss joint responses, Yonhap news agency quoted the Presidential office.
The conversation took place after South Korea’s National Intelligence Service said Friday that the North has decided to send around 12,000 troops to support Russia in the war in Ukraine, with roughly 1,500 soldiers already sent to Russia's Far East.
"Russia's invasion of Ukraine and the military alignment between Russia and North Korea once again confirm that the security of the Indo-Pacific region and the Atlantic region are inextricably linked.
"This undermines the rules-based international order, threatening peace on the Korean Peninsula and globally, and the government will never stand by and let this happen," Yoon was quoted as saying by his office.
He emphasised that NATO is prepared to actively cooperate with South Korea to respond to the military cooperation between Russia and North Korea, and requested that the South Korean government send a delegation to NATO for more detailed information sharing, added the office.
He also expressed hope for strengthening defence industry cooperation and security dialogue among South Korea, Ukraine and NATO in order to address North Korea's troop deployment to Russia, it noted.
After the phone talks, Rutte wrote on social media platform X said he had a discussion with Yoon about the alliance's "close partnership with Seoul," focusing on defence industrial cooperation and the interconnected security of the Euro-Atlantic and Indo-Pacific regions.
"North Korea sending troops to fight alongside Russia in Ukraine would mark a significant escalation," he wrote in the post.
-- BERNAMA-YONHAP
