President Yoon Suk Yeol has strongly criticized military cooperation between North Korea and Russia at the summit of the Group of 20(G-20) nations in Brazil. 

Yoon issued the criticism on Monday in a speech during the first session of the two-day G-20 summit in Rio de Janeiro, right after remarks from Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, who attended the summit on behalf of Russian President Vladimir Putin. 

According to principal deputy national security adviser Kim Tae-hyo, Yoon strongly called for an immediate halt to the military cooperation between Moscow and Pyongyang, while urging the international community to join forces to stop it.

After Yoon’s speech, Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba backed the criticism along with the leaders of the European Union, Canada and Australia. 

Kim said the leaders of Germany and Japan criticized the military cooperation between North Korea and Russia during the second session as well. 

The top office said Yoon was supposed to hold separate bilateral summit talks on Monday with the leaders of South Africa, Indonesia and Mexico on the margins of the G-20 summit, but they were canceled as the G-20 sessions ended later than scheduled.