(ANSA) — BEIJING, JANUARY 30 — NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg has urged South Korea to step up its military support to Ukraine, recalling that other countries have changed their policy of supplying weapons to war participants after the invasion to ban Russia.
Stoltenberg, speaking at the Chey Institute for Advanced Studies in Seoul, thanked South Korea for the aid it has given Kyiv so far, but called for more to be done amid an “urgent need” for ammunition, local media reported. . Seoul has signed important contracts to supply tanks, planes and other weapons to NATO member Poland.
“If we believe in freedom and democracy, if we don’t want to see autocracy and totalitarianism win, then they need guns,” Stoltenberg added, again addressing the situation in Ukraine. Since the beginning of the war, President Yoon Suk-yeol has expressed his support, saying that South Korea’s law against the direct supply of arms to conflict-affected countries is making supplies to Kyiv more difficult, and is limited to providing humanitarian aid for the time being.
Stoltenberg, who met South Korea’s Foreign Minister Park Jin in Seoul yesterday, said North Korea’s support for Russia in the war in Ukraine reinforces the need for the rest of the world to remain “connected” in shared security efforts. “I think that in a more unpredictable and uncertain world, it is even more important that countries that believe in freedom and democracy in a rules-based international order stand together – said the NATO Secretary General, according to Yonhap -. We are obviously concerned about North Korea’s reckless missile testing and nuclear programs. And the war in Ukraine also affects your region. And we also know that North Korea is providing military support to Russia’s war effort with rockets and missiles. And that just underscores how connected we are” (ANSA).
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