‘Russia is delivering the latest technology into North Korea in return for North Korean help with the war against Ukraine,’ the NATO secretary-general said.
NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte on Nov. 7 said North Korea, China, and Iran are working together with Russia against Ukraine, posing threats to Europe and the United States.
“China, North Korea, Russia and, of course, Iran—this is more and more a threat not only to the European part of NATO but also to the United States, because Russia is delivering the latest technology into North Korea in return for North Korean help with the war against Ukraine,” Rutte told reporters before meeting with European leaders in Budapest.
Rutte’s comments come in light of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s decision to send troops to Russia amid its war against Ukraine, raising the alert among Western leaders about the potential expansion of the conflict in Europe. South Korea’s defense ministry said on Nov. 5 that more than 10,000 troops from the North are currently in Russia, with “a significant number” of them having been moved to Kursk and other front lines.
In return for the military support, Rutte said Russia is likely to provide North Korea with its latest technological innovations, posing risks not only to the U.S. mainland and continental Europe but also to NATO partners in the Indo-Pacific, such as Japan and South Korea.
Rutte said North Korea’s actions illustrate the cooperation among Pyongyang, Moscow, Tehran, and Beijing, noting it would be a major topic of the European Political Community Summit in the Hungarian capital.
Over 40 European leaders, including Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, are convening in Budapest for the high-profile summit on Nov. 7, hours after the reelection victory of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump.
Rutte said he looks forward to working with Trump again. “We have to work together,” he said. “I look forward to sitting down with Donald Trump to discuss how we can face these threats collectively, what we need to do more.”
Trump Is ‘Absolutely Right’ on NATO Spending
The NATO chief said the European sides need to spend more on defense, calling Trump “absolutely right” on this point.
During Trump’s first tenure, he repeatedly pressured the NATO allies to comply with the defensive military alliance’s guideline of spending 2 percent of its gross domestic product (GDP) on defense.
“He is right on this,“ Rutte said of Trump. ”You will not get there with the 2 percent.”
Since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, more countries have increased their military spending, with 18 NATO nations spending at least 2 percent of GDP on defense, according to Celeste Wallander, assistant secretary of defense for international security affairs.
Back in 2014, only three members met the spending obligation, and fewer than 10 were meeting the obligation more than half a decade later.
‘Dangerous Expansion of the Conflict’
Separately, South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol held a telephone conference with Trump on Nov. 7. According to Seoul, their 12-minute conversation touched upon the presence of North Korean troops in Russia and the recent intercontinental ballistic missile launch by Pyongyang, among other issues.
Speaking at a press conference following the call, Yeol said he and Trump have agreed on the need to arrange a meeting to delve deeper into these matters.
Concerns were growing over the presence of North Korean troops in Russia. On Nov. 6, top diplomats of the Group of Seven democracies, as well as South Korea and New Zealand, condemned “in the strongest possible terms” the military cooperation between Pyongyang and Moscow.
“The [North Korea’s] direct support for Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine, besides showing Russia’s desperate efforts to compensate its losses, would mark a dangerous expansion of the conflict, with serious consequences for European and Indo-Pacific peace and security,” the ministers said in a statement.