The United States and NATO have reported for the first time evidence of the presence of “thousands” of North Korean soldiers on the territory of Russia, which according to Seoul wants to make them “cannon fodder” for his invasion of Ukraine. Which raises fears of a major escalation in the conflict between Moscow and kyiv. But what about South Korea? While relations between Pyongyang and Seoul are at their lowest point in decades, the South Korean authorities have reacted forcefully and warned that they will not stand idly by.
South Korea, under long-standing doctrine, rationally follows a policy of not supplying weapons to active conflict zones. Although it condemned the Russian invasion of Ukraine, it has so far refused to directly deliver weapons to kyiv, unlike Western countries. But the context has changed. In addition to sending soldiers to the Russian front, North Korea has begun exporting weapons and munitions to Russia in exchange for space and military technologies. “We could review this issue with more flexibility depending on the actions of the North Korean forces,” declared President Yoon Suk Yeol this Thursday, October 24, who thus opened the way to the possibility of supplying weapons to Ukraine .
“Given the transparency with which (South Korean) intelligence has made public its information on the North Korean deployment, it seems that the government has decided to commit to militarily supporting kyiv,” said Choi Gi-il, a former head of national security, interviewed by AFP.
South Korea is a major arms exporter. In 2022, arms sales brought the country $17.3 billion, including $12.7 billion from contracts with Poland, a NATO member country, notably for K2 tanks and K9 self-propelled guns.
Defensive weapons
According to Han Kwon-hee of the Korea Defense Industry Studies Association, these could primarily be defensive weapons, such as surface-to-air missiles, which Seoul has in abundance. Potentially very valuable help for kyiv. After more than two and a half years of war, Ukraine finds itself in a critical military situation, its forces retreating for months on the Eastern Front and Russia continuing to shell its cities for lack of sufficient anti-aircraft defenses.
South Korean intelligence assured last week that North Korea had decided to send up to 12,000 troops to help Russia and that some 1,500 men from its special forces were already in Russia to acclimatize before to leave for the front. Ukraine called on Wednesday for the surrender of North Korean fighters already on its territory.