In his speech to the United Nations General Assembly, South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol denounced on Wednesday September 20 the rapprochement between Russia and North Korea, assuring that possible military aid would be a provocation towards his country . Washington and its allies are discussing a possible delivery of North Korean weapons for the Russian war effort in Ukraine. Tensions between Seoul and Moscow had been high since the start of the war, but they have risen to a new level.
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With our correspondent in Seoul, Nicolas Rocca
In a few days, the tone has hardened considerably between Seoul and Moscow. After summoning the Russian ambassador to South Korea on Tuesday, President Yoon Suk-yeol made an unambiguous speech at the United Nations:
“ If North Korea obtains the information and technology it needs to strengthen its weapons of mass destruction capabilities, in exchange for Russian conventional weapons, a military agreement between Russia and North Korea would constitute a provocation directly aimed at the security and peace, not only of Ukraine, but also of the Republic of Korea. Korea and its allies will not stand idly by. »
An allusion to a possible change of position on Ukraine: Seoul participates in sanctions against Moscow, sells weapons to the NATO country and sends aid to Kiev, but refuses to deliver lethal weapons. This precaution is partly linked to good relations, particularly economic relations, with Russia since the fall of the USSR.
Moscow’s influence on North Korea was also a hope for improving inter-Korean relations: the Kremlin should therefore not be offended. But Yoon Suk-yeol is a supporter of full alignment with Washington, and the summit between North Korean Presidents Kim Jong-un and Russian President Vladimir Putin has finished cooling relations.
This week, an advisor to the South Korean presidency assured that the country had already been observing “ several months » of the ” military transactions » between Moscow and Pyongyang.
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