Seoul no longer rules out directly sending weapons to Ukraine “depending on the level of North Korean involvement”

Until now Seoul has refused to directly deliver weapons to Ukraine. But with the arrival of North Korean soldiers, according to kyiv and Washington, on the front line in Ukraine with Russian forces, South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol no longer excludes this possibility.

South Korea is a major arms exporter, but due to a long-standing national policy that prevents it from arming countries engaged in active conflicts, it has until now refused to directly deliver weapons. weapons to Ukraine. “Now, depending on the level of North Korean involvement, we will gradually adjust our support strategy in several stages,” Yoon Suk Yeol said, adding: “This means we do not rule out the possibility of providing weapons. » However, if this position is retained, South Korea could only initially deliver “defensive weapons”.

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, kyiv's forces have occupied a few hundred square kilometers .

At the same time, Russia and North Korea have grown significantly closer since the invasion of Ukraine began. 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 with in this text “immediate military aid” reciprocal in the event of attack against one of the two countries.

During a press conference organized this Thursday in Seoul, Yoon Suk Yeol explained that he had discussed the North Korean issue with US President-elect Donald Trump and planned to meet him in the “near future”. The two men discussed several topics related to North Korea, such as Pyongyang's “sending of more than 7,000 garbage balloons” to South Korea, disruptions of the GPS system and repeated missile launches by Kim Jung Un .

Distinguishing himself from his pacifist predecessor Moon Jae-in, Yoon Suk Yeol has taken a hard line on nuclear-armed North Korea and is seeking to strengthen ties with Washington, a nuclear-armed ally. security.