SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea warned Tuesday that it might consider supplying weapons to Ukraine in response North Korea is said to have sent troops to Russia, as both North Korea and Russia denied the moves. NATO’s secretary general said this would represent a “significant escalation”.

South Korea’s statement was apparently intended to do just that putting pressure on Russia against the use of North Korean troops in the war against Ukraine. South Korean officials worry that Russia will reward North Korea by giving it advanced weapons technologies that could boost the North’s nuclear and missile programs against South Korea.

At an emergency meeting of the National Security Council, top 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 for an unjustifiable war, South Korea’s presidential office said in a statement.

The officials agreed to take countermeasures in phases, tying the level of their responses to progress in Russian-North Korean military cooperation, the statement said.

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 in a background briefing.

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

Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, South Korea has joined US-led sanctions against Moscow and shipped humanitarian and financial aid to Kiev. But it has avoided supplying weapons directly to Ukraine, in line with its policy of not supplying weapons to countries actively involved in conflict.

South Korea’s spy agency said it confirmed last week that North Korea sent 1,500 special operations troops to Russia this month. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has said his government had it 10,000 North Korean soldiers were prepared to join invading Russian forces.

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

“That will now happen early next week, and then we will see whether North Korea indeed 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 cooperation

North Korea and Russia have significantly increased their cooperation in the past two years. They signed in June a major defense deal requiring both countries to use all available means to provide immediate military assistance if either is attacked. South Korea said yes at the time consider sending weapons to Ukraine, a similar statement it made on Tuesday.

South Korea’s spy agency said North Korea had sent more than 13,000 containers of artillery, missiles and other weapons. conventional weapons to Russia since August 2023 to replenish dwindling weapons supplies.

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

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

At a separate meeting of the UN committee, a North Korean diplomat said his delegation did not feel the need to comment on the troop deployment. He called it “unfounded, stereotypical rumors aimed at smearing the image of the North and undermining legitimate cooperation between two sovereign states.”

Also Tuesday, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s powerful sister called the governments of South Korea and Ukraine “crazies” as she criticized them for making “reckless comments against nuclear weapons states.”

The US and NATO have not confirmed North Korea’s troop deployment.

U.S. Deputy Ambassador to the U.N. Robert Wood said that if true, the North Korean troop shipment marks “a dangerous and deeply concerning development” and noted that the U.S. is “consulting with our allies and partners on such a dramatic step.”

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