Photo : YONHAP News
The defense chiefs of South Korea and the United States have condemned North Korea’s troop deployment to Russia in the “strongest” terms with “one voice.”
Defense Minister Kim Yong-hyun and U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin issued the condemnation on Wednesday in a joint statement after the annual Security Consultative Meeting (SCM) at the Pentagon.
The defense chiefs expressed concern that military cooperation between North Korea and Russia, which has been intensified since the signing of a bilateral Comprehensive Strategic Partnership Treaty, is deepening regional instability.
The two sides made clear that military cooperation, including illegal arms trade and high-technology transfers between Moscow and Pyongyang, constitute a clear violation of UN Security Council resolutions.
The defense chiefs then strongly condemned “in the strongest terms with one voice” that the military cooperation between Russia and North Korea has expanded beyond transfers of military supplies to actual deployment of forces, and pledged to closely coordinate with the international community regarding this issue.
The two sides decided that future combined exercises should include appropriate and realistic scenarios including responses to North Korea’s nuclear use.