South Korea plans to supply weapons to Ukraine – Firstpost

On June 20, South Korea announced that it would consider arming Ukraine. This is a significant policy change, resulting from North Korea and Russia reaching an agreement to defend each other in the event of conflict and shake up the region.

A senior presidential official made the remarks just hours after details of the deal were made public by North Korean state media. Analysts say the deal could represent the closest relationship between Moscow and Pyongyang since the end of the Cold War. This comes at a time when both nations are facing increasingly intense clashes with the West and Russia is increasingly isolated due to its war in Ukraine.

The text of the agreement, which was made public by North Korea’s official news agency, stipulates that whichever nation is invaded and forced into a state of war, the other must immediately use “all means at its disposal” to offer “military and other assistance”. “.

However, the agreement also states that such activities must comply with national and international legal frameworks, as well as Article 51 of the UN Charter, which guarantees the right of self-defense of UN members.

At a summit in Pyongyang on June 19, Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un signed the agreement. Regarding security, trade, investments, cultural ties and humanitarian contacts, they both called it a significant improvement in bilateral relations.

South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol’s office issued a statement condemning the deal, calling it a threat to the South’s security and a violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions, and warned it would have serious consequences. negative consequences on Seoul’s relations with Moscow.

“It is absurd that two parties with a history of launching wars of invasion – the Korean War and the War in Ukraine – are now swearing mutual military cooperation on the basis of a pre-emptive attack by the international community that does not will ever happen,” Mr. Yoon said. said the office.

Yoon’s national security adviser, Chang Ho-jin, said Seoul would reconsider providing arms to Ukraine to help the country fight the Russian invasion.

South Korea, a growing arms exporter with a well-equipped U.S.-backed military, has provided humanitarian aid and other support to Ukraine while joining economic sanctions carried out by the United States against Moscow. But it has not directly supplied weapons to kyiv, citing a long-standing policy of not supplying weapons to countries actively engaged in conflict.

The summit between Kim and Putin came as the United States and its allies expressed growing concern over a possible arms deal in which Pyongyang would supply Moscow with much-needed munitions for its war in Ukraine, in exchange for economic assistance and technology transfers that could increase the threat posed. by Kim’s nuclear weapons and missile program.

After their summit, Mr Kim said the two countries enjoyed an “ardent friendship” and that the agreement was the “strongest treaty ever”, raising the relationship to the level of an alliance. He pledged his full support for Russia’s war in Ukraine. Mr. Putin called it a “revolutionary document” reflecting the common desire to elevate relations to a higher level.

North Korea and the former Soviet Union signed a treaty in 1961 that experts said required military intervention by Moscow if the North was attacked. The deal was abandoned after the collapse of the USSR, replaced by a deal in 2000 that offered weaker security guarantees.

There is an ongoing debate over the strength of the security commitment implied by the agreement. While some analysts view the agreement as a complete restoration of the two countries’ Cold War-era alliance, others say the deal appears more symbolic than substantive.

Ankit Panda, a senior analyst at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said the text appeared to be carefully worded so as not to imply automatic military invention.

But “the big picture here is that both sides are ready to put it on paper and show the world how much they intend to expand the scope of their cooperation,” he said.

The deal came as Mr. Putin visited North Korea for the first time in 24 years, a trip that highlighted their personal and geopolitical ties with Kim hugging Putin twice at the airport , their procession rolling past giant Russian flags and portraits of Putin, and a welcome ceremony in Pyongyang’s main square in the presence of tens of thousands of spectators.

According to KCNA, the agreement also stipulates that Pyongyang and Moscow must not enter into agreements with third parties if they harm the “core interests” of either of them and must not participate in actions that threaten these interests.

KCNA said the agreement requires countries to take steps to prepare joint measures with the aim of strengthening their defense capabilities to prevent war and protect regional and global peace and security. The agency did not specify what those measures were, or whether they would include combined military training and other forms of cooperation.

The agreement also calls on countries to actively cooperate in efforts to establish a “just and multipolar new world order”, KCNA said, underscoring how countries are aligned in the face of their separate confrontations with the United States.

How the deal affects Russia’s relations with the South is a key development to watch, said Jenny Town, a senior fellow at the Stimson Center in Washington and director of the North Korea-focused website 38 North.

“Seoul had already signed sanctions against Russia for its invasion of Ukraine, which deteriorated its relations with Moscow. Now that all ambiguity over the partnership between Russia and North Korea has been resolved, what will Seoul’s reaction be? she says. “Is there a moment when it decides to cut or suspend diplomatic relations with Russia or to expel its ambassador? And have we achieved it?

In recent months, Mr. Kim has made Russia his priority as he advocates a foreign policy aimed at expanding relations with countries confronting Washington, embracing the idea of ​​a “new Cold War” and trying to display a united front in Putin’s broader conflicts with the West. .

Tensions on the Korean Peninsula are at their highest level in years, with the pace of Mr Kim’s weapons tests and combined military exercises involving the United States, South Korea and Japan escalating in a cycle of retaliation.

The Koreas also engaged in Cold War-style psychological warfare, in which North Korea dropped tons of trash on the South with balloons and the South spread anti-North Korean propaganda with its speakers.