Yoon pitches tighter security cooperation between AP4 and NATO

President Yoon Suk Yeol called on NATO's Indo-Pacific partners to establish a "strong collective security posture" in solidarity with the Atlantic alliance to respond to North Korea's nuclear and missile threats.

President Yoon Suk Yeol, second from left, poses for a commemorative photo with the leaders of NATO’s Asia-Pacific Partners, or AP4, on the sidelines of the NATO summit in Vilnius, Lithuania on Wednesday. From left are Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, Yoon, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and New Zealand Prime Minister Chris Hipkins. [JOINT PRESS CORPS]

President Yoon Suk Yeol called on NATO's Indo-Pacific partners to establish a "strong collective security posture" in solidarity with the Atlantic alliance to respond to North Korea's nuclear and missile threats.

The remarks came as Yoon moderated a meeting of leaders of the AP4, or Asia-Pacific Partners, countries, involving Korea, Japan, Australia and New Zealand, on the sidelines of the NATO summit in Vilnius, Lithuania on Wednesday.

Yoon noted that North Korea launched an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) which fell in waters north of Japan's Aomori Prefecture earlier Wednesday morning, in the midst of the security dialogue taking place at the NATO summit.

"This shows once again that security in the Atlantic and the Pacific oceans can never be separated," Yoon said. "The AP4 countries believe that we must establish a strong collective security posture in solidarity with NATO.

"The AP4 will use this as an opportunity to institutionalize our cooperation framework with NATO and take a leading role in regional security in the Indo-Pacific region," he added, standing alongside Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and New Zealand Prime Minister Chris Hipkins.

Kishida said Japan "strongly condemns" the North's latest ICBM launch for "threatening the peace and stability of the international community."

Albanese and Hipkins both called for solidarity with Ukraine.

Russia's illegal invasion of Ukraine "continues to have a devastating impact on the people of Ukraine, but it also has an impact on the economies around the world," Albanese said, saying it serves as a "reminder of why we need to be engaged and to shape the future, rather than allow it to shape us."

The four countries' leaders in their meeting agreed to "sternly respond to provocations that threaten regional peace and global security" after jointly condemning North Korea's ICBM launch and to provide "continued unwavering support for Ukraine," the presidential office said in a statement later.

This marks the second year that the AP4 leaders met following the NATO summit in Madrid in late June 2022.

The Indo-Pacific leaders later Wednesday took part in the NATO summit meeting open to partner countries in Vilnius with issues including Ukraine, global security and other emerging threats high on the agenda.

Korea was invited to attend the NATO summit as an Indo-Pacific partner country for a second consecutive year.

"The North Korean regime is concentrating on advancing its nuclear and missile capabilities while ignoring the people's increasingly difficult livelihood," Yoon said in his address to the NATO leaders' meeting.

He said the North's missiles are "a real threat that can strike Paris, Berlin, and London, as well as here in Vilnius," calling to expand military information-sharing with NATO.

The military information sharing is seen to be referring to the Battlefield Information Collection and Exploitation System, or BICES, a multinational network which enables NATO allies and some partner countries to share intelligence.

Yoon further stressed that South Korea has actively participated in efforts to support Ukraine in solidarity with the international community and provided humanitarian aid such as mine-clearing equipment and ambulances.

"South Korea and I promise to stand with the Ukrainian people until the day their freedom is fully regained," Yoon said.

South Korea will also take part in a NATO trust fund for Ukraine, he added.

Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol, left, chats with Sweden's Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson before the start of a NATO summit meeting Indo-Pacific partners in Vilnius, Lithuania on Wednesday. [AFP/YONHAP]

This year's NATO summit was attended by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, and the 31 alliance members agreed in a joint statement that Ukraine "will become a member of NATO," without specifying concrete details.

The NATO leaders in a joint communiqué Tuesday stated that Russia "must be held fully accountable" for its illegal war of aggression against Ukraine, which has "gravely undermined" global security.

The leaders also stated that they "condemn in the strongest terms" North Korea's weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missile program for the first time in five years. They called on the North to abandon its nuclear weapons and existing nuclear programs in a "complete, verifiable and irreversible manner."

The communiqué also stressed that the Indo-Pacific region "is important for NATO, given that developments in that region can directly affect Euro-Atlantic security," and welcomed their "commitment to supporting Ukraine."

Yoon continued to take part in a relay of bilateral meetings on the sidelines of the NATO summit Wednesday.

Yoon was scheduled to have a separate bilateral summit with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, where they were expected to discuss Tokyo's plan to release treated wastewater from its crippled nuclear power plant in Fukushima into the sea, among other issues.

Last week, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) released a report that backs Japan's plan to release the water stored in tanks at the site after a massive earthquake and tsunami struck Japan on March 11, 2011, crippled the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.

A presidential official told reporters Tuesday that the two leaders are also likely to discuss joint safety measures against the foreign exchange crisis, advance technology research, cooperation for the stabilization of supply chains and mutual security cooperation also involving the United States.

The meeting comes as the two sides have resumed shuttle diplomacy between the two countries since March after the Yoon government proposed a plan to resolve the issue of compensation for Japan's wartime forced labor victims through a Seoul-backed fund. It would mark the sixth meeting between the two leaders since they took office.

"The contaminated water issue is a natural disaster that occurred 12 to 13 years ago, and Asia-Pacific countries are suffering as a result," said the senior presidential official.

On Tuesday, Yoon held bilateral talks with the leaders of Norway, Portugal, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Hungary, Romania, and Sweden.

He was also scheduled to meet with the leaders of Britain, Slovakia, Estonia, Finland and Lithuania on the sidelines of the NATO summit.

On Tuesday, Korea and NATO upgraded relations to an Individually Tailored Partnership Program (ITPP), expanding cooperation to 11 areas including antiterrorism, cyber defense, nonproliferation and emerging technologies.

Yoon in a meeting with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg discussed South Korea-NATO cooperation, the war in Ukraine and North Korea's nuclear and missile threats, according to the presidential office Tuesday.

They assessed that adopting the ITPP laid the foundation for more institutionalized cooperation between South Korea and NATO and discussed ways to drastically strengthen information-sharing with their militaries, said Lee Do-woon, the presidential spokesman, in a briefing.

Yoon shared Korea's plan to establish an international cyber defense training center to hold cyber defense training and expressed hopes for close cooperation with NATO's Cooperative Cyber Defence Centre of Excellence, a military training facility headquartered in Estonia.

Lee elaborated that emerging technologies include data, artificial intelligence, space, missiles and quantum technologies, "which can dramatically improve lives, but also could bring fatal results if abused for security matters."

On Tuesday evening, Yoon and first lady Kim Keon-hee took part in a dinner event hosted for leaders invited to the NATO summit by Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda at the presidential palace in Vilnius.

Stoltenberg said at the dinner that one of the reasons why NATO was successful was cooperation with partner countries such as South Korea, and toasted to partner countries, said presidential spokesman Lee in a statement.

Yoon briefly chatted with Czech, Dutch, Australian, Danish, Spanish and Greek leaders. The presidential couple also took the opportunity to promote Busan's 2030 World Expo bid.

First lady Kim Keon-hee separately visited the King Sejong Institute in Vilnius, a Korean language school, to expand student exchange with Lithuania, the presidential office said.

On Thursday, Yoon and Kim will begin an official visit to Poland, the second leg of their two-country, six-day tour which runs to Saturday.

Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol, center left, and first lady Kim Keon-hee, center right, mingle with other foreign leaders and their spouses at a dinner event during the NATO summit in Vilnius, Lithuania on Tuesday. [JOINT PRESS CORPS]

BY SARAH KIM [kim.sarah@joongang.co.kr]