South Korea intends to improve cooperation with Japan and the United States out of “necessity” enhanced by Russia’s ties with North Korea, according to South Korean officials.

“The strengthening of defense capabilities in response to North Korea’s threats and provocations is a natural measure to protect our population,” the South Korean foreign ministry told TASS, a state-run Russian outlet. “The [longer] the military cooperation between Russia and North Korea lasts the stronger the necessity of cooperation in the security area between the Republic of Korea, the US and Japan will be.” 

South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol, a center-right politician who took office in 2022, has worked to improve South Korean ties with Tokyo as part of a foreign policy effort to make his country a “global pivot state” in the U.S. alliance network. Those initiatives have acquired wider significance in the context of Russia’s war in Ukraine, a conflict that has impelled a corollary shift in Russian President Vladimir Putin’s relationship with Kim Jong Un, the truculent communist dictator in Pyongyang.

“Japan strongly condemns North Korea’s arms supply to Russia, as it may lead to further deterioration of the situation in Ukraine and constitutes a violation of relevant United Nations Security Council (UNSC) resolutions, which prohibit all transfer, etc. of arms and related material to North Korea,” Japanese Foreign Minister Kamikaze Yoko said Tuesday. “In addition, we are closely following Russia’s possible military support to North Korea with concern.”

South Korea’s statement to TASS amounts to a prompt rebuff of Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, who accused South Korea of “preparing for war” with North Korea without acknowledging the flurry of missile tests and other ominous rhetoric from North Korean officials. Kim’s provision of ammunition to Russia overlays with North Korea’s traditional dependence on China, which also has prioritized a partnership with Putin in recent years and likewise protests South Korea’s cooperation with the United States and its European allies.

“In recent years, NATO has been inching closer to the Asia Pacific and using the non-existent ‘China threat’ as an excuse to advance bloc confrontation, which poses a threat to regional security,” Chinese Defense Ministry spokesman Wu Qian said Thursday. “It’s fair to say NATO is like a walking war machine, wherever it goes, there will be instability.”

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South Korea sent a senior envoy to Brussels earlier this week for meetings at NATO headquarters and with the European Union.

“Both sides underscored the importance of close cooperation between NATO and the Republic of Korea, and discussed the implementation of the new partnership program in areas such as arms control, new technologies and cyber defense,” a NATO summary of their meeting stated. “Addressing the security situation on the Korean peninsula, both sides condemned the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea’s (DPRK) recent provocations and repeated attempts to destabilize the region.”