(Yonhap Interview) NATO chief says S. Korea's potential arms support for Ukraine fundamentally different from N.K. arms supply to Russia

BRUSSELS/SEOUL, June 28 (Yonhap) -- South Korea's potential arms support for Ukraine should not be viewed on the same footing as North Korea's suspected delivery of munitions to Russia, given the illegal nature of Russia's invasion, the chief of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) has said.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg also said that NATO would welcome "any major support" from South Korea to help Ukraine in the fight against Russia, pointing out that issues like North Korean threats and the war in Ukraine show that ensuring security is not bound by region.

"We should not have some kind of moral equivalence between North Korea's support to Russia, and potential support from South Korea to Ukraine, because this is war aggression," Stoltenberg said in an interview with Yonhap News Agency in Brussels on Thursday.

"Russia has violated law, attacked a neighbor, so support to Russia's illegal war is illegal. Support to Ukraine defending themselves is legal. It is enshrined in the U.N. Charter," Stoltenberg said.

"Any attempt to equalize support to Russia with support for Ukraine is completely wrong," he said.

Stoltenberg's remarks came as South Korea signaled the possibility of providing weapons to Kyiv, after Russia and North Korea signed a new treaty pledging mutual military assistance in case either of them comes under armed attack.

National Security Adviser Chang Ho-jin said Sunday that South Korea could consider supplying weapons to Ukraine and the decision will depend on Moscow's actions.

"I welcome any support, any major support for Ukraine," Stoltenberg said. "South Korea has an advanced defense industry ... You have big amounts of ammunition and all the things that Ukraine needs, but of course, it's for South Korea to make those decisions," he said.

Seoul's suggestion of changing its policy of providing only non-lethal aid to Ukraine has sent the Seoul-Moscow relations to a low point, with the two sides warning each other against taking any further action that could turn their ties into an "irreversible" state.

Stoltenberg strongly denounced the North for providing "significant" military support to Russia to help its war efforts in Ukraine.

"More than 1 million artillery shells have been transported directly from North Korea to Russia and to the front lines ... North Korea should not support Russia's illegal war against Ukraine," he said.

"Their mutual defense agreement just highlights how much aligned they are now and this is something we have to take very seriously," he said.

Stoltenberg went on to call for the world to not let Russia win this war because it will send the wrong message to other authoritarian countries that "they can get what they want if they use military force in violation of international law."

"(It) makes even more important that democratic nations work together as we do, and when NATO and South Korea and our Asia Pacific parties meet in Washington," he said, referring to the upcoming NATO summit set for next month.

On the prospect of NATO's cooperation with South Korea after the U.S. election, Stoltenberg expressed optimism that it will continue to further strengthen no matter who becomes the next U.S. president.

"NATO's cooperation with the Pacific partners doesn't depend on a one single individual. This is a strong commitment by all 32 allies," Stoltenberg said.

Former President Donald Trump, seeking a second term at the White House, was notorious for downplaying the NATO framework as a group of "delinquent" members "ripping us off" in the defense spending.

"It is in our interest and in the interest of South Korea and Asian Pacific partners to work closely together. I'm absolutely confident this will continue and be further developed," he said.

elly@yna.co.kr
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