The government of South Korea, a major arms exporter, has until now opposed it because of a long-standing national policy that prevents it from arming countries engaged in active conflicts.
The South Korean president does not rule out delivering weapons directly to Ukraine to help it in its war against Russian forces soon to be joined by North Korean soldiers according to kyiv and Washington, which would constitute a development of Seoul's line on this matter. At a press conference in Seoul on Thursday, President Yoon Suk Yeol also reported that he had raised the North Korean issue with US President-elect Donald Trump and planned to meet him in a “near future”. The government of South Korea, a major arms exporter, had already said it was studying the possibility of sending weapons directly to kyiv. It has opposed it until now because of a long-standing national policy that prevents it from arming countries engaged in active conflicts. “Now, depending on the level of North Korean involvement, we will gradually adjust our support strategy in several stages”Mr. Yoon said.
“This means that we do not exclude the possibility of supplying weapons”he added, specifying, without saying more, that “if we engage in arms support, we consider defensive weapons as a priority”. Seoul has been accusing North Korean power for several months of delivering artillery shells and missiles to Moscow intended for use in Ukraine, where Russia has been leading an offensive since February 2022. According to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, some 11,000 North Korean soldiers have also been deployed in the Russian region of Kursk, bordering Ukraine, to support the Kremlin forces where, since a surprise Ukrainian offensive in August, the forces of kyiv occupy a few hundred square kilometers. Russia and North Korea have grown significantly closer since the invasion of Ukraine began.
Meeting with Trump
On Wednesday, the upper house of the Russian Parliament ratified a mutual defense treaty with North Korea, concluded during a rare visit by Vladimir Putin to Pyongyang in June, which includes “immediate military aid” reciprocal in the event of an attack against one of the two countries. A participation of North Korean soldiers in the fighting in Ukraine, which Westerners believe is imminent, would be a new blow for kyiv's troops, lacking men and weapons, who are retreating in several places on the forehead. Kim Jong-un plans to meet Donald Trump “during this year”. The two men discussed several topics related to North Korea, such as “the sending of more than 7000 garbage balloons” by Pyongyang in South Korea, its disruption of the GPS system and its repeated missile attacks, noted Mr. Yoon on Thursday.
Departing from his pacifist predecessor Moon Jae-in, Mr. Yoon has taken a hard line on nuclear-armed North Korea and sought to strengthen ties with Washington, a nuclear-armed ally. security. During his term in office, Donald Trump met with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un three times, beginning with a historic summit in Singapore in June 2018, to address the issue of denuclearization in North Korea. But since the failure of a summit in Hanoi in 2019, Pyongyang has abandoned diplomacy, redoubling its efforts in developing its military arsenal while rejecting offers for dialogue from Washington.
“I think he misses me”Donald Trump declared in July, during the electoral campaign, about the North Korean number one, promising that if he were to return to the White House, North Korea would stop launching missiles. If Donald Trump “shows considerable flexibility, a dramatic deal on nuclear talks could be within reach”predicts Hong Min of the Korea Institute for National Unification. The analyst anticipates that Pyongyang could choose to refrain from openly criticizing Washington or engaging in «provocations» ahead of the inauguration of the president-elect, which must take place next January.
