Kim’s deal with Putin prompts South Korea to consider arming Ukraine

Seoul — South Korea, a major arms exporter, will “reconsider” a long-standing policy that prohibits it from supplying arms directly to Ukrainea presidential official said 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 men signed a “groundbreaking” agreement that included a commitment to come to each other’s aid in the event of an attack.

Hours later, Seoul said it “plans to reconsider the issue of providing arms support for Ukraine” a presidential official told reporters.

Seoul has a long-standing policy that prohibits it from selling weapons to active conflict zones, a policy it has stuck to despite calls from Washington and kyiv to reconsider.

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

Seoul expressed “grave concern” over the Moscow-Pyongyang deal, in which the two countries agreed to strengthen military and economic cooperation, including immediate military assistance if either faced aggression army.

“Any cooperation that directly or indirectly contributes to strengthening North Korea’s military capabilities is a violation of UN Security Council resolutions,” national security adviser Chang Ho-jin told reporters. “Russia’s violation of the resolution and its support for North Korea will inevitably have a negative impact on relations between South Korea and Russia.”

Putin told Pyongyang that Russia “does not rule out military-technical cooperation” with the North, which would violate a series of U.N. sanctions against 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 invasion of Ukraine in 2022, as Western powers tightened sanctions against Moscow.

CBS News senior foreign correspondent Elizabeth Palmer said that although the agreement signed Wednesday in Pyongyang saw Putin and Kim pledging to defend the other in the event of attack, officials in the United States and other countries Other Western capitals believe that Russia wants above all to ensure a constant supply of oil to the North. Korean weapons for his war in Ukraine. However, concern has been growing for months over a tacit arms deal under which North Korea supplies Russia with munitions in exchange for economic aid and technology transfers, which politicians and experts say could increase the threat posed by Kim’s regime. nuclear weapons and missile program.

Pyongyang has called allegations of arms deliveries to Russia “absurd”, but the North’s new treaty with Moscow has fueled concerns about an increase in arms deliveries.

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

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

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

Seoul announced Thursday that it would impose additional unilateral sanctions against a number of Russian and North Korean parties over arms deliveries and oil transfers between the two countries.

Any future military support from Seoul to Ukraine will have to “entail a clear level of moderation”, Ahn Chan-il, a defector-turned-researcher who heads the Global Institute for North Korea Studies, told AFP.

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