A senior South Korean general has highlighted the need for international response and cooperation against North Korea's evolving military threats at a major gathering of top North Atlantic Treaty Organization military officials, the Joint Chiefs of Staff said Friday.

Lt. Gen. Hwang You-sung, vice chairman of the JCS, made the call during a session of the defense chiefs of the NATO Military Committee in Brussels on Thursday after being invited to the gathering along with delegations from three other NATO Indo-Pacific partner countries -- Australia, Japan and New Zealand.

"(He) presented North Korea's advancing nuclear and missile capabilities, including its launch of a military reconnaissance satellite, as the biggest threat on the Korean Peninsula and in the region, and stressed the need for close cooperation and response from the international community to respond to and deter this," the JCS said.

North Korea has recently pressed ahead to make progress in its key military projects, such as successfully launching its first military spy satellite into orbit in November last year, with plans to launch three more this year.

During his two-day visit to Brussels from Wednesday, Hwang also met with Dutch Adm. Rob Bauer, the chair of the NATO Military Committee, and other senior military officials and agreed on the need to increase cooperation between countries that share common values, it said.

It marked the ninth time that South Korea has attended the annual gathering since its first appearance as a NATO partner country in 2010. (Yonhap)