South Korea considers supplying arms to Ukraine after Russia, North Korea sign strategic deal

SEOUL, South Korea — South Korea said Thursday it would consider sending weapons to Ukraine, a major policy shift suggested after Russia and North Korea shook the region and beyond by signing a pact to defend each other in the event of war.

The comments by a senior presidential official came hours after North Korean state media revealed details of the deal, which observers say could mark the strongest ties between Moscow and Pyongyang since the end of the Cold War. The agreement comes at a time when Russia is increasingly isolated by the war in Ukraine and both countries face escalating tensions with the West.

According to the text of the agreement published by the North’s official KCNA news agency, if either country is invaded and forced into a state of war, the other must deploy “all means at its disposal without delay” to provide “military and other assistance.” But the agreement also stipulates that such actions must be in accordance with the laws of both countries and Article 51 of the UN Charter, which recognizes the right of a UN member state to self-defense.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and Russian President Vladimir Putin signed an agreement at a summit in Pyongyang on Wednesday that both described as a major upgrade in bilateral ties, spanning security, trade, investment, culture and humanitarian relations.

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

“It is absurd that two parties with a history of launching invasion wars – the Korean War and the war in Ukraine – are now committing to military cooperation on the basis of a preemptive strike by the international community that will never happen,” Yoon’s office said.

At the United Nations in New York, South Korean Foreign Minister Cho Tae-yul called it “deplorable” that Russia was acting in violation of multiple U.N. sanctions resolutions against North Korea that Moscow voted for.

Yoon’s national security adviser Chang Ho-jin said Seoul would reconsider the issue of supplying arms to Ukraine to help the country fight off a full-scale invasion by Russia.

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 U.S. economic sanctions against Moscow. But it has not directly supplied weapons to Kiev, citing a longstanding policy of not supplying arms to countries actively engaged in conflict.

Speaking to reporters in Hanoi, where he traveled from Pyongyang, Putin said Thursday that supplying arms to Ukraine would be “a very big mistake” for South Korea. If it happened, it would lead to “decisions that probably will not please the current leadership of South Korea.”

He said South Korea “should not worry” about the deal, if Seoul does not plan any aggression against Pyongyang.

Asked whether Ukrainian strikes on Russian regions with Western-supplied weapons could be considered an act of aggression, Putin said that “this needs to be studied in more detail, but it is close to that,” and that Moscow does not rule out supplying weapons to North Korea in response.

Several NATO countries, including the United States and Germany, have recently authorized Ukraine to strike some targets on Russian soil with the long-range weapons they supply to kyiv. Earlier this month, a Western official and a U.S. senator said Ukraine had used U.S. weapons to strike in Russia.

Putin responded that Moscow “reserves the right” to arm its Western adversaries, and reiterated that idea on Thursday.

“I have said, including in Pyongyang, that in this case we reserve the right to supply weapons to other regions of the world,” he said. “Given our agreements with the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, I do not exclude this possibility.”

The summit between Kim and Putin comes as the United States and its allies have expressed growing concern about a potential arms deal in which Pyongyang would provide Moscow with munitions needed for the war in Ukraine in exchange for economic assistance and technology transfers that could increase the threat posed by Kim’s nuclear weapons and missile programs.

After their summit, Kim said the two countries had a “fiery friendship” and that the agreement was the “strongest treaty ever concluded,” elevating their relationship to the level of an alliance. He pledged full support for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Putin called it a “revolutionary document,” reflecting a shared desire to take relations to a new level.

North Korea and the former Soviet Union signed a treaty in 1961 that experts say required Moscow to intervene militarily if the North were attacked. The agreement was abandoned after the collapse of the USSR, replaced in 2000 by another that offered weaker security guarantees.

The debate over the strength of the security commitment that the agreement implies is currently raging. While some analysts see the deal as a full restoration of the Cold War-era alliance between the two countries, others say it appears more symbolic than substantive.

Ankit Panda, a senior analyst at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said the text appeared to have been carefully drafted so as not to imply automatic military intervention.

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

The deal came as Putin visited North Korea for the first time in nearly a quarter-century, a trip that highlighted their personal and geopolitical ties. Kim hugged Putin twice at the airport, their motorcade driving past giant Russian flags and portraits of Putin, before a welcoming ceremony in Pyongyang’s main square attended by tens of thousands of spectators.

According to KCNA, the agreement also stipulates that Pyongyang and Moscow should not make deals with third parties if they harm the “core interests” of either of them and should not participate in actions that threaten those interests.

KCNA said the agreement required the countries to take steps to prepare joint measures to strengthen their defense capabilities to prevent war and safeguard 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 the countries to actively cooperate in efforts to establish a “just and multipolar new world order,” KCNA said, highlighting how the countries are aligning themselves in the face of their separate confrontations with the United States.

The impact of the pact on Russia-South Korea relations is a key thing to watch, said Jenny Town, a senior fellow at the Stimson Center in Washington and director of the North Korea website 38 North.

“Seoul had already signed sanctions against Russia for its invasion of Ukraine, which damaged its relations with Moscow. Now that all ambiguity about the partnership between Russia and North Korea has been removed, how will Seoul respond?” she asked. “Is there a point where Seoul will decide to sever or suspend diplomatic relations with Russia or expel its ambassador? And have we reached that point?”

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

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

The two Koreas have also engaged in Cold War-style psychological warfare, with North Korea dropping tons of trash on South Korea from balloons and Seoul broadcasting anti-North Korean propaganda from its loudspeakers.

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Edith M. Lederer contributed to this United Nations report.