Yoon, NATO chief share concerns over N.K.’s troop dispatch to Russia in phone talks

President Yoon Suk Yeol and the chief of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) shared concerns over North Korea’s preparations to send troops to Russia for its war in Ukraine during their phone talks Monday, Yoon’s office said.

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, the office said.

The conversation took place after the National Intelligence Service said Friday 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 reckless 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,” Yoon was quoted as saying by his office.

“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,” he added.

Yoon said South Korea will actively take “phased measures” in response to the level of military cooperation between Pyongyang and Moscow, expressing hope to seek “practical countermeasures” in cooperation with NATO and its member states.

In June, South Korea indicated the possibility of supplying weapons to Ukraine after North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a pact pledging mutual defense. However, it has so far maintained its stance of providing Ukraine with non-lethal humanitarian aid.

During the talks, Rutte expressed “serious concerns” over North Korea’s troop dispatch to Russia, which he described as blatantly violating international law and U.N. Security Council resolutions, the presidential office said.

He emphasized 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, the office said.

He also expressed hope for strengthening defense industry cooperation and security dialogue among South Korea, Ukraine and NATO in order to address North Korea’s troop deployment to Russia, it noted.

In response, Yoon vowed to promptly dispatch a delegation to facilitate information sharing and take measures that would strengthen security cooperation, according to the office.

Both sides agreed to closely monitor the developments of illegal cooperation between Russia and North Korea, including the potential transfer of sensitive technology, and to explore joint responses.

After the phone talks, Rutte wrote on social media platform X that he and Yoon discussed NATO’s “close partnership with Seoul,” and said North Korea sending troops to fight alongside Russia in Ukraine would mark “a significant escalation.”

The deployment of such a large contingent of North Korean troops, including its most elite military units, signals a major development in its military ties with Russia, which was previously limited to supplying artillery shells and short-range ballistic missiles.

Security experts in Seoul have also raised concerns that Pyongyang in return could receive key missile technology from Russia that the North has not secured yet, including that involving intercontinental ballistic missile reentry.