Allison Hooker, former senior director for Asia at the National Security Council, during her visit to Korea in 2019 / Korea Times file

A deepening military relationship between North Korea and Russia could be a factor pushing South Korea to consider seeking its own nuclear program, a former U.S. official said Friday, amid growing concerns about the security implications of this week's summit between the two countries.

Allison Hooker, former senior director for Asia at the National Security Council, made the remarks after Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un held a summit in Pyongyang, Wednesday, in a show of their burgeoning military cooperation.

Putin and Kim signed a "comprehensive strategic partnership" treaty that included an article calling for one side to provide military assistance to the other "without delay" in the case of an armed invasion.

"I think we cannot rule out the fact that South Korea continues to move, maybe more rapidly, toward its own nuclear program. And we have to figure out how we feel about that in the U.S. and the alliance context as well," she said during a webinar hosted by the Asia Society Policy Institute.

"But I think this definitely, the deepening relationship with Russia kind of pushes them in that direction," she added.

Hooker also said that the growing partnership between Pyongyang and Moscow elevates the importance of the alliance between Seoul and Washington, and heightens concerns about what would happen to the alliance after the U.S. presidential election in November.

"It just increases uncertainty," she said. "We are already living in a very uncertain, intense world, but I think this just adds to it."

Daniel Russel, a former assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs, cast the latest developments in relations between the North and Russia as a "serious setback" for Chinese interests.

"It gives Kim much more room to maneuver, makes it easier for him to disregard Chinese interests," he said. "A North Korea that has more impunity, that has more running room just isn't going to be responsive to Beijing's preferences."

Since last year, the Putin-Kim partnership has seen a significant rise. Washington has revealed that the North has supplied Russia with munitions and other weapons for use in Ukraine, while in return, Pyongyang has been seeking assistance to help advance its weapons programs. (Yonhap)