Photo : YONHAP News
NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte says North Korea deploying soldiers to fight alongside Russia in Ukraine would be a “significant escalation.”
Rutte made the comment Monday on X, saying also that he had spoken over the phone with President Yoon Suk Yeol about NATO’s close partnership with South Korea, defense cooperation, and interconnected security between the Atlantic and Indo-Pacific regions.
Monday’s phone call marks the first direct exchange of opinions since South Korea’s National Intelligence Service announced that North Korea had decided to send some 12-thousand troops to support Russia.
A day before the NIS announcement, Rutte said NATO was communicating closely with all its partners, including South Korea, to gather evidence to determine whether the communist state was deploying soldiers to Russia.