North Korea and Russia’s deepening ties prompt South Korea to reconsider ban on supplying weapons to Ukraine

Seoul — Top arms exporter South Korea will “reconsider” a long-standing policy that prohibits it from supplying weapons directly to Ukrainesaid a presidential official on Thursday, after North Korea and Russia signed a defense agreement. Russian President Vladimir Putin was in Pyongyang on Wednesday for a high-level state visit that highlighted his growing ties with leader Kim Jong Unas the two signed a “groundbreaking” agreement that included a promise to help each other in the event of an attack.

Hours later, Seoul said it was “planning to reconsider the supply issue arms support for Ukraine“, a presidential official told reporters.

Seoul has a long-standing policy prohibiting it from selling weapons in active conflict zones, which it has stuck to despite calls from Washington and Kiev to reconsider.

The country, which aims to become one of the world’s largest arms exporters, has signed billion-dollar deals to sell its tanks and howitzers to European countries, including Kiev’s ally Poland.

Seoul expressed its “grave concern” about the Moscow-Pyongyang agreement, where the two countries agreed to strengthen their military and economic cooperation, including immediate military assistance if either faced armed aggression.

“Any cooperation that directly or indirectly helps strengthen North Korea’s military capabilities is a violation of UN Security Council resolutions,” National Security Advisor Chang Ho-jin told reporters. “The very violation of the resolution and Russia’s support for North Korea will inevitably have a negative impact on the South Korea-Russia relationship.”

Putin said in Pyongyang that Russia “does not rule out military-technical cooperation” with the North, which would violate a series of UN sanctions on the Kim regime over its banned nuclear and ballistic missile programs.

North Korea and Russia have been allies since North Korea’s founding after World War II and have grown even closer since Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine as Western powers tightened sanctions against Moscow. .

CBS News senior foreign correspondent Elizabeth Palmer said that while the pact signed Wednesday in Pyongyang had Putin and Kim committing to defend each other if they were attacked, officials in the U.S. and other Western capitals believe that Russia, above all, wants to guarantee a constant supply of North. Korean weapons for their war in Ukraine. However, concern has been mounting for months over a tacit arms deal in which North Korea supplies munitions to Russia in exchange for economic assistance and technology transfers, which politicians and experts fear could increase the threat posed by Kim’s war nuclear weapons and missile program.

Pyongyang has described allegations of arms supplies to Russia as “absurd”, but the new treaty between the North and Moscow has fueled concerns about increased arms deliveries.

North Korea thanked Russia for using its UN veto in March to effectively end monitoring of sanctions violations, just as UN experts began investigating alleged arms transfers.

During the state visit, Kim called Putin “the dearest friend of the Korean people” and said his country “expresses full support and solidarity with the Russian government” during the war in Ukraine.

Putin also said that UN sanctions against the North – which began in 2006 over the country’s banned nuclear programs – should be reviewed.

Seoul said on Thursday it will impose additional unilateral sanctions against several Russian and North Korean parties over arms shipments and oil transfers between the two countries.

Any future arms support from Seoul for Ukraine would need to “involve a clear level of moderation,” Ahn Chan-il, a defector turned researcher who heads the World Institute of North Korea Studies, told AFP.

“If support is limited to conventional weapons such as artillery shells and landmines, similar to the level of support that North Korea is providing to Russia, Russia’s reaction could be minimized,” he added.