NATO chief asks Seoul to 'step up' aid to Ukraine

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NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg on Monday called on South Korea to “step up” its military aid to Ukraine, suggesting it revise its policy of not providing military aid. weapons to countries at war.  

“If we believe in freedom, in democracy, if we do not want autocracies and totalitarianism to prevail, then they need weapons”, Mr. Stoltenberg pleaded Monday at the Chey Institute in Seoul, calling on Seoul to do more for Kyiv.  

He had met the day before with senior South Korean government officials, including Foreign Minister Park Jin, as part of a tour to strengthen ties between NATO and its allies in Asia.

South Korea is a growing global arms exporter and recently signed contracts to sell several hundred tanks to European countries, including NATO member Poland. 

But its laws prevent it from selling them to warring nations, making it difficult to deliver arms to Ukraine, to which Seoul has still provided non-lethal equipment and humanitarian aid. < /p>

kyiv has an “urgent need for more ammunition”, said Jens Stoltenberg, pointing out that countries like Germany and Norway, which had legislation similar to South Korea's in terms of , have revised their policy to support Kyiv. 

South Korea opened its first diplomatic mission to NATO last year.

China's Challenge

Mr. Stoltenberg said it was “extremely important that President Putin does not win this war”, believing that it would make the world more dangerous.

In the event of a Russian victory, “the message to the leaders authoritarians, also in this part of the world, in Beijing, will be that the use of force is the way to get what you want,” he said.

He added that NATO does not see China as an “adversary” and believes in common engagement on issues ranging from arms control to climate change.

Allies of the nato continue to trade with China, but the European energy vulnerability, highlighted by the war, proves that one should not become “too dependent on authoritarian powers”, he added. 

The NATO Secretary General also warned that the Russian army was preparing for a new war effort and was receiving weapons, in particular from North Korea, according to information provided by the House Blanche.

Pyongyang denied this on Sunday and warned that the United States would face a “really undesirable result” if it continued to spread this “trumped-up rumour”. 

The North Korean government called the accusation a “dumb attempt to justify” the upcoming shipment of military devices. to Ukraine by Washington, which last week promised the delivery of 31 Abrams tanks to Kyiv.