SKorea Warns Russia on NKorea Collab.  09/21 06:13

   

   UNITED NATIONS (AP) -- South Korea's president sounded a warning to fellow 
world leaders Wednesday about the recent communication and possible cooperation 
between North Korea and Russia, saying any action by a permanent U.N. Security 
Council member to circumvent international norms would be dangerous and 
"paradoxical."

   Speaking before the U.N. General Assembly, Yoon Suk Yeol invoked North 
Korean leader Kim Jong Un's visit last week to Russia, which is one of the five 
permanent members of the council, the U.N.'s most powerful body.

   Kim met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Russia's far east. The two 
said they may cooperate on defense issues but gave no specifics, which left 
South Korea and its allies -- including the United States -- uneasy.

   "It is paradoxical that a permanent member of the U.N. Security Council, 
entrusted as the ultimate guardian of world peace, would wage war by invading 
another sovereign nation and receive arms and ammunition from a regime that 
blatantly violates Security Council resolutions," Yoon told fellow leaders on 
the second day of the U.N. General Assembly's annual gathering of leaders. He 
had been expected to raise the issue.

   Yoon said that if North Korea "acquires the information and technology 
necessary" to enhance its weapons of mass destruction in exchange for giving 
conventional weapons to Russia, that would also be unacceptable to the South.

   "Such a deal between Russia and the DPRK will be a direct provocation 
threatening the peace and security of not only Ukraine but also the Republic of 
Korea," he said, using the acronym for North Korea's official name, the 
Democratic People's Republic of Korea. "The Republic of Korea, together with 
its allies and partners, will not stand idly by."

   South Korea has expressed support for Ukraine, which is fighting a war 
against the 2022 Russian invasion of its territory. At the G20 summit in India 
earlier this month, Yoon said Seoul would contribute $300 million to Ukraine 
next year and -- eventually -- a support package worth more than $2 billion.

   "The nuclear and missile programs of the Democratic People's Republic of 
Korea pose not only a direct and existential threat to the peace of the 
Republic of Korea, but also (are) a serious challenge to peace in the 
Indo-Pacific region and across the globe," Yoon said in his speech.

   Foreign experts speculate that Russia and North Korea were pushing to reach 
arms transfer deals in violation of Security Council resolutions. Both 
countries are in major disputes with the West, and both are under international 
sanctions.

   While Russian-North Korean cooperation is feared to fuel Russia's war 
efforts in Ukraine, it has also encouraged unease in South Korea, where many 
think a Russian transfer of sophisticated weapons technologies would help North 
Korea acquire a functioning spy satellite, a nuclear-powered submarine and more 
powerful missiles.

   On Tuesday, South Korean Vice Foreign Minister Chang Ho-jin summoned the 
Russian ambassador to Seoul, Andrey Kulik, and urged Moscow to immediately stop 
its military cooperation with North Korea, which he said would have a "very 
negative impact" on its relations with the South.

   North Korea has been increasing its nuclear arsenal for years, ratcheting up 
tensions in the region as it threatens to use nuclear weapons in conflicts. It 
regularly conducts missile tests, particularly in the past year.

   In response, Yoon and U.S. President Joe Biden in April agreed to expand 
joint military exercises, increase the temporary deployments of U.S. strategic 
assets and launch a bilateral nuclear consultative group.

   The Korean Peninsula was split into the U.S.-supported, capitalistic South 
Korea and the Soviet-backed, socialist North Korea after its liberation from 
Japan's 35-year colonial rule at the end of the World War II in 1945. The two 
Koreas remains along the world's most heavily fortified border since they end 
of the 1950-53 Korean War. The two countries technically remain in a state of 
war 70 years after an armistice was signed.

   Kim, North Korea's leader, oversees an autocratic government and is the 
third generation of his family to rule. He was preceded by his father, Kim Jong 
Il, who died in 2011, and his grandfather Kim Il Sung, a former guerrilla who 
established the state.