Threatens the USA

NATO: Moscow supports North Korea’s nuclear program

Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin is increasingly relying on North Korea.

(Bild: APA/AFP/POOL/Valery SHARIFULIN)

NATO accuses Russia of supporting North Korea's nuclear program. The military alliance sees this as a kind of "thank you" for the troops and weapons provided to Moscow.

"In return for troops and weapons, Russia is supporting North Korea in its missile and nuclear programs," NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said on Wednesday after a two-day meeting of the alliance's foreign ministers in Brussels. According to Rutte, this development could destabilize the Korean peninsula and even threaten the USA.

The foreign ministers of the 32 NATO countries strongly condemned the military cooperation between Russia and North Korea, according to Rutte. There is a risk that the regime in Pyongyang could direct the missiles against regional partners such as South Korea and Japan, against Europe and even against the United States, warned the Dutchman. NATO had already confirmed the deployment of North Korean soldiers on the Russian border with Ukraine weeks ago.

NATO fears new serious acts of sabotage and cyber attacks
NATO also fears new serious acts of sabotage and cyber attacks on the Alliance's territory. "We are observing that Russia in particular is becoming increasingly willing to cause physical damage and endanger human lives in our countries through sabotage," said a senior official on the sidelines of the NATO foreign ministers' meeting in Brussels. China, Iran and North Korea are also active in cyber attacks.

Both China and Russia are conducting an ongoing campaign to spread malware. This is about espionage, but also about being able to trigger disruptions in the event of rising tensions. According to the official, Russia is focusing on critical infrastructures and industrial control systems in particular.

As an example of a particularly serious cyber attack that has already taken place, the official cited a huge attack against NATO member Albania, which was probably carried out by Iran. This had paralyzed the border control system and ensured that all files of the Ministry of the Interior were published on the Internet. "Every police investigation, every email between police officers, every secret witness, every court case and every Interpol file was public," he explained.

(Bild: stock.adobe.com/gankevstock (KI-generiert))

Underwater pipelines particularly vulnerable
According to the information, underwater infrastructure is particularly susceptible to sabotage. "In NATO countries, we rely on an extensive network of pipelines and cables," said the NATO official, referring to gas, oil and data lines. More than one million kilometers of this infrastructure are involved, which Russia is continuously mapping through a program launched decades ago. This also includes ships, submarines and unmanned and remote-controlled underwater vehicles. According to the report, the Russians have the ability to plant explosives or cut cables "whenever they wish". NATO also sees it as problematic that there is an imbalance in vulnerability, because Russia is nowhere near as dependent on such infrastructure as the allies.

Arsons, instrumentalization of refugees and assassination plans
The expert named arsons, the instrumentalization of refugees, attacks on railroad lines and assassination plans against leading industry representatives as other activities presumably controlled by Russia. For example, it is considered likely that the assassination of the CEO of Germany's largest armaments company, Armin Papperger, was planned at times.

According to information from NATO, it must be expected that Russia will launch large-scale programs to influence elections in allied countries. This could involve the dissemination of false or misleading information, cyberattacks or vote-buying, as was recently the case in Moldova. All of this is an organized campaign, said the official.

The Russian government is said to have planned to assassinate Rheinmetall CEO Armin Papperger at the beginning of the year

(Bild: APA/AFP/Ina FASSBENDER)

NATO plans to update its defense strategy
In response to the developments, the foreign ministers of the NATO countries now want to decide on Wednesday to revise NATO's strategy for countering hybrid threats. This generic term covers actions that state or non-state actors use to harm other countries without waging open warfare. As a rule, they are difficult or impossible to attribute to a specific perpetrator.

According to NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, there will be an increased exchange of intelligence information and better protection of critical infrastructure, among other things. It is also about the question of how attacks should be retaliated against in the future.

According to the expert, it is high time that action was taken. The problem is that we have become accustomed to hybrid attacks becoming more intense and more frequent, he said. As a result, we have not reacted appropriately for a long time.

Most recently, in November, two fiber optic cables in the Baltic Sea were damaged within a short period of time. These were a cable running between Sweden and Lithuania and one between Finland and Germany. The cause is still unclear in both cases. The Swedish authorities are investigating possible sabotage. The investigators are focusing on a Chinese ship called "Yi Peng 3", which is said to have passed the affected parts of the cables at the time in question.