Russia Shows Displeasure, Saying South Korea Is Leaning Toward NATO

[Financial News] The Russian Foreign Ministry expressed concern over South Korea's growing military cooperation with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).
According to Russian media reports on the 16th local time, Russian Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Andrey Rudenko met with South Korean Ambassador to Russia Lee Seok-bae and said he was concerned that South Korea was increasingly leaning toward NATO.
Rudenko said that concrete steps, including efforts to deepen military and military-technical cooperation with the NATO alliance, support that view. He claimed that this could pose a threat to Russia's security.
The Russian Foreign Ministry also said in a statement that he pointed out it would be unacceptable for South Korea to effectively join NATO's qualitative and quantitative rearmament, which he said was being carried out openly in preparation for war with Russia.
The remarks appear to reflect Moscow's displeasure that President Lee Jae Myung was the only leader among the four NATO Indo-Pacific partners, or IP4, to attend the NATO summit held in Ankara, the capital of Türkiye, on July 7-8.

taeil0808@fnnews.com Kim Tae-il Reporter