NATO military chief says N. Korea, Russia, China not yet tangible military threat

The recent display of unity among the North Korean, Russian and Chinese leaders was merely a "show" that falls short of a military alliance, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)'s military chief said, citing their lack of interoperability.

The assessment by Adm. Giuseppe Cavo Dragone, chair of the NATO Military Committee, came after the leaders of the three countries stood shoulder to shoulder at a major military parade in Beijing last week, sparking concerns that their ties could evolve into a tangible security threat.

"It's not a military threat, because they don't have anything in common. They don't have standardization. They don't have interoperability. They don't have the same tactics," Cavo Dragone said in an interview with Yonhap News Agency on Tuesday on the sidelines of the Seoul Defense Dialogue.

The annual security forum begun on Monday for a three-day run, hosted by South Korea's defense ministry.

"They cannot fight together the way NATO does after 75 years of training," Cavo Dragone noted.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin appeared together at center stage at the Chinese military parade last Wednesday, in what media called a show of defiance against the U.S.-led West.

Cavo Dragone described the military parade as a well-prepared "window" that showcased China's message to the world that it wants to lead against the "Western world," defining it as a group of nations who think in the same way, love freedom and democracy and are against autocracy.

"So it's a show, show of flags, but nothing more than that ... It is not an operational entity," he said, although he added that the three countries may seek to bank economic and diplomatic benefits from their ties, potentially including cooperation over a gas pipeline that runs through China and Russia.

The top NATO military officer also underscored the growing security links between NATO and the Indo-Pacific, saying that interconnectivity is the key in the current security landscape that is "no more local, no more regional, no more national but global."

Against such a backdrop, Cavo Dragone called for joint and consistent efforts by the international community in responding to security threats such as North Korea's continued nuclear and missile development.

Asked about the feasibility of the complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, the NATO official responded skeptically, saying, "I don't know if denuclearization is possible."

"What can be done is the whole international community standing up, increasing sanction, increasing isolation of North Korea," Cavo Dragone said, calling for efforts to convince Russia and China that similar measures could hit them in the future.

"It would be the only way to reduce, eventually to stop it, until democracy will break out of North Korea too."

In such an interconnected era, Cavo Dragone said NATO aims to weave a "fabric of interconnectivity" that supports the alliance as well as its partners, such as the four Indo-Pacific partners of NATO, dubbed the IP4, to prevent conflict and pursue and preserve common values.

Specifically, the NATO top military officer highlighted the possibility of further expanding cooperation with South Korea in areas of emerging technologies.

"South Korea has an outstanding edge in emerging technologies, in artificial intelligence, in cyber and it could be very beneficial for the alliance, whatever we have vice versa. Cooperation would be paramount," he said.

In the NATO summit held in June, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte issued a joint statement with the IP4 member states and expressed his intent on strengthening arms industry cooperation. NATO and South Korea have also agreed to launch a working-level consultative body for such cooperation.

He also did not rule out the possibility of NATO drills involving South Korea going forward.

"Alone, you can go faster, but together, we can go further, and that's what we want," Cavo Dragone said.