By Josh Smith

SEOUL (Reuters) – North Korea’s provision of weapons has strengthened Russia’s hand in Ukraine by allowing it to keep its arsenals stocked at home, Germany’s top military official said during a visit to South Korea on Monday.

Chief of Defence General Carsten Breuer said Russian President Vladimir Putin would not have reached out to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un for weapons if they were not useful.

“It’s about increasing the production of weapons for Russia’s aggression in Ukraine, it’s also strengthening Russia by making it possible for them to keep their stocks like they are,” Breuer told reporters in the South Korean capital Seoul.

Ukraine and the United States, among other countries and independent analysts, say that Kim is helping Russia in the war against Ukraine by supplying rockets and missiles in return for economic and other military assistance from Moscow.

North Korea has shipped at least 16,500 containers of munitions and related materiel to Russia since September last year, and Russia had launched more than 65 of those missiles at targets in Ukraine, Robert Koepcke, U.S. deputy assistant secretary of state, said in a speech last week.

Moscow and Pyongyang have denied direct arms transfers, which would violate United Nations embargoes.

When asked whether he had pressed South Korea to directly provide weapons to Ukraine, Breuer said he shared Ukraine’s view that anti-aircraft devices, infantry fighting vehicles and other weapons would be useful in the fight and that every country should do all they can.

South Korea has provided non-lethal equipment and aid but has said it does not plan to send weapons unless Russia’s cooperation with North Korea crosses unspecified red lines.

“We have told North Korea that their security cooperation with Russia has direct implications for our security situation,” German Ambassador to South Korea Georg Schmidt said.

During his visit to South Korea, Breuer toured two German warships that had docked there before crossing the South China Sea on their way to a stop in Manila.

The general declined to confirm if the ships would transit the disputed Taiwan Strait, which would be the first such voyage by German warships in more than 20 years.

China claims sovereignty over democratically governed Taiwan, and says it has jurisdiction over the nearly 180-km (110 miles) wide waterway.

Taiwan objects to China’s sovereignty claims and says only the island’s people can decide their future.

(Reporting by Josh Smith; Editing by Alex Richardson)