South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol vowed Thursday to strengthen cooperation with the United States, Japan and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) to address deepening military cooperation between North Korea and Russia, which he called a “collusion of convenience.”
Yoon made the remarks during a NATO public forum in Washington amid growing concerns over the security implications of a growing military alignment between Moscow and Pyongyang. He was in the U.S. capital to attend a NATO summit.
“The South Korean government will continue to strengthen the South Korea-U.S. alliance and also Korea-U.S.-Japan cooperation and the partnership with NATO to thwart and neutralize illicit Russia-North Korea military and economic cooperation,” he said in remarks interpreted into English.
“We will also closely analyze the potential impact of Russia-North Korea cooperation on the security of our country and international peace and we will take steps to devise corresponding countermeasures,” he added.
Yoon des
cribed the Moscow-Pyongyang alignment as a “collusion of convenience driven by their own pressing needs.”
“Russia wants North Korea to actively engage in anti-American, anti-Western rhetoric while serving as its arsenal,” he said. “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 (UNSC) sanctions.”
Yoon was apparently referring to Russia’s veto in March of a UNSC resolution whose passage would have extended the mandate of a U.N. expert panel monitoring the enforcement of anti-Pyongyang sanctions.
In his keynote speech, Yoon criticized “new and challenging forces” that reject an “international order based on universal values and norms.” He did not specify who those forces are.
“Autocratic regimes maintain their power by restricting freedoms of their own citizens and subjecting them to constant surveillance. The collusion of those who advocate for altering the status quo through force di
rectly challenges the peace and prosperity established by the free world,” he said.
“At this moment, the security of both Europe and Asia is a simultaneously under threat. This is why IP4 countries have attended the NATO summit for the third consecutive year.”
IP4 refers to NATO’s four Indo-Pacific partners — South Korea, Japan, Australia and New Zealand.
He stressed that “freedom is never given for free.”
“The only way to block and thwart the attempt to change the status quo through a coercion is for our allies and friends to stand together and united with overwhelming strength.”
Source: Yonhap News Agency
