Russia’s war in Ukraine has the “potential” to fuel violence “on the Korean Peninsula and in the northeast Asian region,” according to South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol.
“At this moment, the security of both Europe and Asia is simultaneously under threat,” Yoon said Thursday in Washington, D.C. “The only way to block and thwart the attempts to change the status quo through coercion is for our allies and friends to stand together and united in overwhelming strength. It must be also made very clear that any reckless challenge will not only lead to failure but also result in greater suffering on their part.”
Yoon delivered that exhortation on the sidelines of the NATO summit, an annual assembly of the trans-Atlantic alliance chiefs that has been attended, for three years running, by the leaders of South Korea, Japan, Australia, and New Zealand. South Korea has emerged as a key supplier of heavy weapons to NATO allies such as Poland and Estonia, a dynamic galvanized by Russia’s growing military cooperation with North Korea.
“The missiles and the artillery shells that North Korea is supplying to Russia will prolong the war in Ukraine, and Russia’s potential military technology and economic assistance to North Korea in return threatens peace on the Korean Peninsula and in the Northeast Asian region as well,” Yoon said.
Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un signed a mutual defense treaty last month, a pact that allows “for the provision of mutual assistance in the event of aggression against one of the parties to this agreement.” Yoon, however, assessed that Moscow and Pyongyang are pursuing a “collusion of convenience,” as both countries have a shared interest in undermining the United States and its allies.
“Russia wants North Korea to actively engage in anti-American, anti-Western rhetoric while serving as its arsenal,” he said through an interpreter during a Q&A session. “North Korea hopes that Russia will provide it with advanced military technology and energy resources and also help them weaken the monitoring of the U.N. Security Council sanctions.”
The four Indo-Pacific attendees of the NATO summit marked the occasion with a statement condemning the Putin-Kim partnership.
“New Zealand, Japan, the Republic of Korea, and Australia strongly condemn the illicit military cooperation between the Russian Federation and the DPRK, which undermines peace and stability in both the Indo-Pacific and European region,” the quartet said on Thursday. “New Zealand, Japan, the Republic of Korea, and Australia urge the Russian Federation and the DPRK to abide by the relevant UN Security Council resolutions and immediately cease all such activities that violate these resolutions.”
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The growing coordination between the Indo-Pacific and trans-Atlantic wings of the U.S. alliance network is a key priority for American strategists, a trend that Yoon characterized as a natural outgrowth of South Korea’s history as a country that survived a “surprise invasion by Soviet-backed North Korea” with the assistance of 10 NATO members.
“Ladies and gentlemen, 35 years after the end of the Cold War, we find ourselves facing new and challenging forces,” Yoon said. “They incite their own people to harbor hostility towards the external world, disguising this as patriotic nationalism. Autocratic regimes maintain their power by restricting the freedoms of their own peaceful citizens and subjecting them to constant surveillance. The collusion of those who advocate for altering the status quo through force directly challenges the peace and prosperity established by the free world.”