South Korean leader meets Ukraine delegation, calls for response to North Korean troops in Russia
SEOUL — South Korea’s president on Wednesday met a visiting Ukraine delegation and called for the two countries to formulate countermeasures in response to the threat posed by North Korea’s recent dispatch of more than 10,000 soldiers to support Russia’s war against Ukraine.
The North Korean troop deployment is threatening to expand the almost three-year war, with Ukraine and the U.S. saying that some of the soldiers have already begun engaging in battle on the front lines.
Leaders in Seoul and Washington also worry that Russia might in return help North Korea build more advanced nuclear weapons targeting their nations. In late October, South Korea warned it could respond by supplying weapons to Ukraine.
During a meeting with the Ukrainian delegation led by Defense Minister Rustem Umerov, President Yoon Suk-yeol said he hopes that the governments in Seoul and Kyiv will work out effective ways to cope with the security threat posed by the North Korean-Russian military cooperation, Yoon’s office said in a statement.
The Ukrainian delegation later met separately with Yoon’s national security advisor, Shin Wonsik, and Defense Minister Kim Yong Hyun. During the meetings, Umerov briefed the South Korean officials on the status of the Russia-Ukraine war and expressed hope that Kyiv and Seoul will strengthen cooperation, the statement said.
It said the two sides agreed to continue to share information on the North Korean troops in Russia and North Korean-Russian weapons and technology transfers while closely coordinating with the United States.
Some 10,000 North Korean troops are in Russia near the Ukraine battleground. How significant is this deployment?
The South Korean statement didn’t say whether the two sides discussed Seoul’s possible weapons supply to Ukraine.
Many observers say Donald Trump’s victory in the U.S. presidential election could make South Korea more cautious about potentially shipping weapons to Ukraine because the president-elect has promised to end the war swiftly.
Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, South Korea has joined U.S.-led sanctions against Moscow and provided humanitarian and financial aid to Kyiv. But it has avoided directly supplying arms in line with its policy of not supplying lethal weapons to countries actively engaged in conflicts.
South Korean officials have said they will take phased countermeasures, linking the level of their response to the degree of Russia-North Korean cooperation.
Shin, the national security advisor, said last week that Russia has supplied air defense missile systems to North Korea in exchange for its sending troops to Russia. Experts say it’s unlikely that Russia will transfer high-tech nuclear and missile technology to North Korea in the initial stage of the troop dispatch.
North Korea and Russia have sharply increased their military and other cooperation as each face confrontations with the U.S. and its allies. The U.S., South Korea and others accuse North Korea of having shipped artillery, missiles and other conventional weapons to Russia.
Kim writes for the Associated Press.
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