UNITED NATIONS (AP) — South Korea’s president warned his fellow leaders Wednesday about recent communications and possible cooperation between North Korea and Russia, saying any action by a permanent member of the U.N. Security Council to circumvent international norms is dangerous and ” “paradoxical” would be .”
In his speech to the UN General Assembly, Yoon Suk Yeol referred to last week’s visit to Russia by North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, one of the five permanent members of the Council, the UN’s most powerful body.
Kim met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in the Russian Far East. The two said they could cooperate on defense issues but did not provide further details, worrying South Korea and its allies – including the United States.
“It is paradoxical that a permanent member of the UN Security Council, entrusted as the supreme guardian of world peace, would wage war by invading another sovereign nation and obtaining arms and ammunition from a regime that blatantly violates Security Council resolutions “violates,” Yoon told his fellow leaders on the second day of the UN General Assembly’s annual meeting of heads of state and government. He was expected to raise the issue.
Yoon said that if North Korea acquires “the necessary information and technology” to improve its weapons of mass destruction in return for supplying Russia with conventional weapons, that would also be unacceptable for the South.
“Such an agreement between Russia and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea would be a direct provocation that threatens not only the peace and security of Ukraine, but also the Republic of Korea,” he said, using the acronym for North Korea’s official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. “The Republic of Korea, along with its allies and partners, will not stand idly by.”
South Korea has expressed support for Ukraine, which is waging war against Russia’s invasion of its territory in 2022. At the G20 summit in India earlier this month, Yoon said Seoul would provide Ukraine with $300 million next year and – eventually – a support package worth more than $2 billion.
“The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea’s nuclear and missile programs not only pose a direct and existential threat to the peace of the Republic of Korea, but also pose a serious challenge to peace in the Indo-Pacific region and around the world,” said Yoon in his speech.
Foreign experts speculate that Russia and North Korea were pushing for arms transfer agreements in violation of Security Council resolutions. Both countries are in major conflict with the West and both countries are subject to international sanctions.
While there are fears that Russian-North Korean cooperation could fuel Russia’s war effort in Ukraine, it has also stoked unrest in South Korea, where many believe a Russian transfer of advanced weapons technology would help North Korea gain a functioning spy satellite, a nuclear Submarine, acquire and more powerful missiles.
On Tuesday, South Korean Vice Foreign Minister Chang Ho-jin summoned Russia’s ambassador to Seoul, Andrey Kulik, and called on Moscow to immediately end its military cooperation with North Korea, which he said would have a “very negative impact” on relations with North Korea the south would have.
North Korea has been building up its nuclear arsenal for years, heightening tensions in the region as it threatens to use nuclear weapons in conflicts. Missile tests have been carried out regularly, especially in the past year.
In response, Yoon and U.S. President Joe Biden agreed in April to expand joint military exercises, increase temporary deployments of U.S. strategic assets and establish a bilateral nuclear advisory group.
The Korean Peninsula was split into U.S.-backed, capitalist South Korea and Soviet-backed, socialist North Korea following its liberation from Japan’s 35-year colonial rule at the end of World War II in 1945. The two Koreas remain along the most heavily fortified border in the world since the end of the Korean War in 1950–53. The two countries remain technically at war, 70 years after a ceasefire was signed.
Kim, North Korea’s leader, presides over an autocratic government and is the third generation of his family to rule. He was preceded in death by his father, Kim Jong Il, who died in 2011, and his grandfather, Kim Il Sung, a former guerrilla fighter who founded the state.
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Associated Press correspondent Hyung-jin Kim in Seoul contributed to this report.