SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea warned Tuesday that it may consider selling arms to Ukraine in response North Korea is reportedly sending troops to Russia, as both North Korea and Russia denied the moves. The NATO secretary general said this would represent a “significant escalation.”

South Korea’s statement was apparently intended to do so Put pressure on Russia against the use of North Korean troops in its war against Ukraine. South Korean officials fear that Russia could reward North Korea by providing it with advanced weapons technologies that can boost the North’s nuclear and missile programs targeting South Korea.

At an emergency meeting of the National Security Council, senior South Korean officials condemned North Korea’s alleged troop deployment as “a serious security threat” to South Korea and the international community. They described North Korea as “a criminal group” that forces its youth to serve as Russian mercenaries in an unjustified war, said a statement from the South Korean presidential office.

The officials agreed to take gradual countermeasures and to tie the scale of their response to progress in Russian-North Korean military cooperation, according to the statement.

Possible steps include diplomatic, economic and military options, and South Korea could consider sending both defensive and offensive weapons to Ukraine, a senior South Korean presidential official told reporters on condition of anonymity to speak at a background briefing.

The official said North Korea could try to perfect Russian high-tech technologies Nuclear missiles. The official said Russia could support North Korea in its efforts to modernize and acquire its aging conventional weapons systems a space-based surveillance system would pose a serious security threat.

Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, South Korea has joined US-led sanctions against Moscow and sent humanitarian and financial support to Kyiv. However, in line with its policy of not supplying weapons to countries actively involved in conflicts, it has avoided direct arms sales to Ukraine.

South Korean intelligence said last week it had confirmed that North Korea had sent 1,500 special forces to Russia this month. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said his government had intelligence information about it 10,000 North Korean soldiers were prepared to join the invading Russian forces.

NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said later on Tuesday that South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol would soon send experts to Brussels to brief ambassadors from the 32-nation military alliance.

“That will now happen at the beginning of next week, and then we will see whether North Korea actually supports Russia’s illegal war in Ukraine or not,” Rutte said. “If that were the case, if they were to send troops into Ukraine, that would be a significant escalation.”

North Korea and Russia are intensifying their cooperation

North Korea and Russia have significantly intensified their cooperation in the past two years. They signed in June an important defense contract Both countries must use all available means to provide immediate military assistance in the event of an attack. South Korea said at the time that it would do so Consider sending weapons to Ukraine, a similar statement it made on Tuesday.

South Korean intelligence said North Korea sent more than 13,000 containers containing artillery, missiles and others conventional weapons to Russia since August 2023 to replenish its dwindling weapons supplies.

North Korea and Russia have denied the deployment of North Korean troops and the alleged arms transfer.

At a meeting of the UN Security Council on Monday, Russia’s UN ambassador Vasily Nebenzia rejected the South Korean claim as well as Western accusations Iran supplies Russia with missiles And China supplies weapons components. He accused the West of “spreading scaremongering with Iranian, Chinese and Korean bogeymen, each more absurd than the last.”

At a separate meeting of the U.N. committee, a North Korean diplomat said his delegation did not feel it necessary to comment on the troop deployment, calling it “unfounded, stereotypical rumors aimed at tarnishing the image” of the North and the to undermine legitimate cooperation between two sovereign states.

Also on Tuesday, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s powerful sister called the governments of South Korea and Ukraine “crazy” as she accused them of making “reckless comments toward nuclear-armed states.”

The USA and NATO have not confirmed North Korea’s troop build-up.

U.S. Deputy Ambassador to the United Nations Robert Wood said that if true, the North Korean troop deployment represents “a dangerous and extremely concerning development,” noting that the U.S. “is in agreement with our allies and partners advise such a dramatic step.”

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Associated Press writers Lorne Cook in Brussels and Kim Tong-hyung contributed to this report.