Russia sends military tech to North Korea, raising alarms for Europe, U.S. - NATO chief

NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said this before the summit of the European Political Community in Budapest, Ukrinform reports.

"Today at this meeting, I think that the North Korean (military - ed.) is involved in Russia. We see more and more that North Korea, Iran, China, and Russia are working together against Ukraine. Russia has to pay for this with something. One of the things it is doing is delivering technology to North Korea, which is now threatening the future of America and continental Europe, as well as our partners in the Indo-Pacific region, such as Japan and South Korea. This is a dangerous development that we need to discuss today," the Allies' chief emphasized.

He noted that he hopes to meet soon with the winner of the U.S. presidential election, Donald Trump, to talk about how to collectively confront the new threat.

Mark Rutte noted that if Russia succeeds in Ukraine, it will mean its significant strengthening on the borders of the Alliance. In such a scenario, it would seize new territories and take advantage of Ukraine's human and defense potential. Such a development could pose a threat not only to Europe, the European part of NATO, but also to the United States.

"That's why collectively we have to work not only on the threat from Russia, but also on the threat from these four countries (North Korea, Iran, Russia and China - ed.) working together. Very quickly, we will see that the United States itself is threatened by this new technological development," Rutte added.

Rutte assured that NATO would cooperate with Donald Trump, as it did during the four years he served as U.S. president. It was then that he emphasized the need to increase the contribution of European allies to the Alliance's defense budget, and it is largely due to these efforts that most allies now spend at least 2% of GDP on defense.

"Of course, these costs could be higher. Obviously, spending only 2% is hardly enough to achieve the goal of strengthening the Alliance's deterrence and defense," the NATO Secretary General said.

• Earlier, the head of the Main Intelligence Directorate, Kyrylo Budanov, said that North Korea was sending its military and missiles to Russia in exchange for Moscow's technology for tactical nuclear weapons.