NATO to address North Korea-Russia arms trade

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NATO to address North Korea-Russia arms trade

Foreign Minister Park Jin, right, and NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, shake hands in their meeting at the Foreign Ministry in Seoul on Sunday. [YONHAP]

Foreign Minister Park Jin, right, and NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, shake hands in their meeting at the Foreign Ministry in Seoul on Sunday. [YONHAP]

North Korea’s arms trade with Russia, and its nuclear brinkmanship, will be addressed by NATO and its Asian partners, said the military alliance’s chief Jens Stoltenberg in Seoul on Sunday.
 
“We are of course concerned about the reckless missile tests and nuclear programs of North Korea, and the war in Ukraine also has ramifications for your region,” Stoltenberg said in his meeting with Foreign Minister Park Jin on the same day.
 
“We also know that North Korea is providing military support to the Russian war efforts with rockets and missiles,” he added. “In a more unpredictable and uncertain world, it is even more important that countries that believe in democracy and rules-based international order stand together.”
 
In visiting Korea for the first time since November 2017, Stoltenberg alluded to an invitation extended to President Yoon Suk Yeol to attend the 2023 NATO summit in Vilnius, Lithuania, in July.
 
“It was a historic moment when the president of the Republic of Korea met all the other NATO leaders at the NATO summit in Madrid last year, and my intention is to have the same kind of meeting at the Vilnius summit in Lithuania this year,” he said.
 
The NATO chief was scheduled to meet with Defense Minister Lee Jong-sup, and possibly Yoon, before flying to Tokyo on Monday to meet with Prime Minister Fumio Kishida.
 
His visit follows a record level of military provocations from North Korea, which last year launched over 90 ballistic and other missiles, including an intercontinental ballistic missile in November.
 
The White House also confirmed last December that the North Korean regime had sent an initial delivery of arms to Russian military company Wagner Group that included infantry rockets and missiles to support Russia’s military operations in Ukraine.
 
Yoon, along with Kishida, had attended the NATO summit in Madrid, marking the first time the two countries were invited to the summit as observers.
 
The alliance hosted a summit meeting with the heads of state of what it calls Asia-Pacific partners, or AP4: Japan, Australia, New Zealand and Korea.
 
Following the summit, Korea opened its NATO office within its embassy in Brussels in November last year, designating Korean Ambassador to Belgium Yoon Soon-gu as the ambassador to NATO.
 
“I’m pleased to see that the Republic of Korea and NATO have been steadily enhancing our partnership to address global challenges ever since Korea became NATO’s global partner in 2006,” said Park in his meeting with Stoltenberg. “Given today’s unprecedented global challenges, we believe that solidarity among countries that share values of freedom, democracy and rule of law is more important than ever.”
 
Stoltenberg's visit to Korea comes just ahead of that by U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, who had earlier this month hosted a NATO meeting in Germany. Austin had left for the Philippines and Korea on Sunday, and is expected to meet with Yoon on Tuesday.

BY ESTHER CHUNG [chung.juhee@joongang.co.kr]
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