South Korea warned Tuesday it could consider supplying weapons to Ukraine in response to North Korea allegedly dispatching troops to Russia, as both North Korea and Russia denied the movements.
The South Korean statement seemed aimed at pressuring Russia to avoid incorporating North Korean troops in its Ukraine conflict.
South Korean officials are concerned that Russia might reward North Korea by giving it sophisticated weapons technologies that can boost the North’s nuclear and missile programs that target South Korea.
In an emergency National Security Council meeting, top South Korean officials condemned North Korea’s alleged dispatch of troops as “security threat” to South Korea.
They described North Korea as “a criminal group” that forces its youths to serve as Russian mercenaries for an unjustifiable war, South Korea’s presidential office said in a statement.
The options discussed included diplomatic, economic, and military responses, with South Korea potentially sending both defensive and offensive weapons to Ukraine, stated a senior South Korean presidential official during a background briefing.
The official said North Korea could attempt to get high-tech Russian technologies to perfect its nuclear missiles. The official said Russia’s possible help for North Korea’s efforts to modernize its outdated conventional weapons systems and acquire a space-based surveillance system would pose a serious security threat.
Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, South Korea has supported U.S.-led sanctions against Moscow and provided humanitarian and financial support to Kyiv.
However, it has refrained from directly sending arms to Ukraine, adhering to its policy of not supplying weapons to nations actively involved in conflicts.
NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte said later Tuesday that South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol is sending experts to Brussels soon to brief ambassadors at the 32-nation military alliance.
“That will now happen early next week, and then we will see whether North Korea is indeed, or not, supporting Russia’s illegal war in Ukraine,” Rutte said. “If that would be the case, if they would be sending troops to Ukraine, that would mark a significant escalation.”
South Korea’s spy agency said that North Korea had sent more than 13,000 containers of artillery, missiles and other conventional arms to Russia since August 2023 to replenish its dwindling weapons stockpiles.
Both North Korea and Russia have denied the claims of North Korean troop deployment and the alleged weapons transfer.
On the same day, Kim Jong Un’s sister slammed the South Korean and Ukrainian governments as “lunatics” for their “reckless remarks against nuclear weapon states.”
The U.S. and NATO have yet to confirm the deployment of North Korean troops.
U.S. Deputy Ambassador to the U.N., Robert Wood, commented that if the troop dispatch is confirmed, it would be “a dangerous and highly concerning development.”
