South Korea and the U.S. "North Korea's dispatch of troops to Russia condemns it the most"

South Korean and U.S. defense ministers strongly condemned North Korea's dispatch of troops to Ukraine for Russia.

Defense Secretary Kim Yong-hyun and U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said in a joint statement issued after holding the 56th Korea-U.S. Security Consultative Meeting, SCM, at the Pentagon near Washington, D.C. on the 30th local time.

South Korea and the U.S. first said, "We expressed concern that military cooperation between Russia and North Korea, which has been strengthened since the signing of the Comprehensive and Strategic Partnership Treaty between Russia and North Korea, is deepening instability in the region."

"The two ministers have made it clear that military cooperation with Russia, including illegal arms trade and high-tech transfers, is a clear violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions," it said.

At the same time, he stressed, "We strongly condemn the fact that military cooperation between Russia and North Korea has gone beyond the movement of military materials and has led to actual dispatch of troops, and we have decided to work closely with the international community on this issue."

This is an expression of the 55th SCM Joint Statement last year that "confirmed and strongly condemned the clear violation of existing UN Security Council resolutions" on military cooperation such as the North Korea-Russia arms trade.

In the joint statement, the two ministers urged North Korea to respect the NLL, noting that the Northern Limit Line, the NLL, has been an effective means of separating military forces and preventing military tensions over the past 70 years.

References to the NLL have been omitted since 2018, during the Moon Jae In administration, but have been included in six years as North Korea's territorial claims have been raised.

The two ministers also urged North Korea to "strongly condemn and immediately stop North Korea's unilateral bombing of the inter-Korean road and continued spraying of dirt and garbage balloons."