Seoul, Nov 4 (EFE).- The European Union’s head of diplomacy, Josep Borrell, and South Korea’s Defense Minister Kim Yong-hyun on Monday condemned the deployment of North Korean troops in Russia and vowed to coordinate to stop military cooperation between Pyongyang and Moscow.
Borrell met with Kim in Seoul on a visit during which he will also hold a meeting Monday with Foreign Affairs Minister Cho Tae-yul, in addition to visiting the joint security area in the Demilitarized Zone that separates North and South Korea.
“In coordination with the international community, (they) agreed to closely cooperate to block military cooperation between Russia and North Korea,” the South Korean Ministry of Defense said in a statement.
South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol also called for thorough countermeasures.
“The recent international security situation and the illegal military cooperation between North Korea and Russia pose a significant threat to our national security,” the South Korean leader said during a parliamentary speech.
“We will thoroughly review all possible scenarios to prepare countermeasures.”
In their meeting, Borrell and Kim also agreed to highlight that the security of Europe and the Atlantic is connected to that of the Indo-Pacific, and pledged to continue strengthening security cooperation between South Korea and the EU, according to the ministry.
The pair is expected to officially launch a strategic security dialogue on Monday, based on an agreement made at a bilateral summit in May last year.
Borrell’s visit to Seoul is marked by the deployment of North Korean troops in Russia to support Moscow in its war against Ukraine, a contingent that could enter combat imminently, according to South Korean, Ukrainian and US intelligence services.
On Sunday, Ukrainian military intelligence (GUR) said that in the last week of October Russia moved more than 7,000 North Korean soldiers – of the approximately 10,000 that are estimated to be deployed on Russian territory – to areas near the Ukraine border.
Ukraine said it has detected all the sites where Russia is concentrating North Korean soldiers and could carry out pre-emptive strikes against them if it had the permission of its Western allies, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Friday night, before urging his allies to act instead of “waiting” for North Korean soldiers to start attacking Ukraine.
Last Friday, Borrell stressed the need to give a “forceful and united response” to the movement of North Korean troops because it implies the violation of “fundamental international principles,” in statements to EFE during his visit to Japan prior to his trip to South Korea. EFE
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