The Atlantic Alliance warns Moscow and Pyongyang. This Monday, October 21, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte estimated that the deployment of North Korean soldiers to fight on the Ukrainian front alongside Russian forces would constitute a “significant escalation.”
“I spoke with the South Korean president (Yoon Suk Yeol) about the close partnership between NATO and Seoul, defense industrial cooperation and interconnected security between the Euro-Atlantic and the Indo-Pacific,” the Alliance chief said in X.
“North Korea sending troops to fight Russia in Ukraine would mark a significant escalation,” he added.
According to South Korea’s intelligence agency, North Korea has decided to send up to 12,000 soldiers to help Russia. Some 1,500 North Korean special forces soldiers are already in Russia to acclimatize and should soon go to the front, according to the same source.
North Korea accused of sending weapons to Russia
Asked on Friday about this point, Mark Rutte indicated that the Alliance could not confirm “at this time” the deployment of troops by North Korea in Russia. “But of course that can change,” he added.
As relations between Pyongyang and Seoul have deteriorated in recent months, nuclear-armed North Korea has moved even closer to Russia, an ally of the North Korean regime since its creation after World War II.
South Korea and the United States have long claimed that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un sends weapons used in Ukraine to Russia.
Russian President Vladimir Putin made a rare visit to Pyongyang in June, during which the two countries signed a mutual defense treaty, the details of which have not been revealed. This has fueled speculation about new arms transfers, which violate UN sanctions packages against Russia and North Korea.
Source: BFM TV
