President Yoon Suk Yeol and NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte spoke over the phone Wednesday and discussed the deployment of North Korean troops to Russia. 

According to the presidential office, Yoon told Rutte that last week, a South Korean delegation visited NATO and the European Union headquarters in Brussels to brief officials on the matter before heading to Ukraine to discuss responses to military cooperation between Moscow and Pyongyang. 

Yoon said Seoul is arranging for a Ukrainian special envoy to visit South Korea to share information and coordinate joint responses, pledging to maintain close communication with NATO on the issue. 

The NATO chief said he expects North Korean troops to engage in combat against Ukraine within days, stressing the need for NATO and South Korea, along with other like-minded nations, to strengthen solidarity to counter what he called the unprecedented security crisis.

Rutte added that NATO and the EU have agreed to set up a task force to strengthen bilateral cooperation in response to growing security threats.