South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol speaks throughout a joint press convention with Poland’s President Andrzej Duda (not seen within the photograph) on the Presidential Workplace in Seoul, South Korea, Thursday.
Jeon Heon-Kyun/Pool photograph/AP
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Jeon Heon-Kyun/Pool photograph/AP
SEOUL — South Korea’s president vowed on Thursday to reply to North Korea’s deployment of troops to Russia, together with by probably supplying offensive weapons to Ukraine.
Seoul is not going to “sit idle” within the face of a North Korean “provocation that threatens international safety past the Korean Peninsula and Europe,” South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol advised reporters in Seoul, after a summit assembly with visiting Polish President Andrzej Duda.
Yoon’s remarks comply with Protection Secretary Lloyd Austin’s assertion Wednesday that america has proof of North Korea’s deployment of troops to Russia.
Austin didn’t specify what the proof was, however stated if North Korean troops had been to struggle for Russia, it could be a “very, very critical situation.”
South Korea’s intelligence chief advised lawmakers Wednesday that North Korea has despatched 3,000 troops, together with particular forces, to Russia for coaching, and that the North plans to extend that quantity to 10,000 by December.
The deployment of North Korean troops may add to considerations that the battle dangers spilling over and affecting tensions in Asia, from the Korean Peninsula to the Taiwan Strait.
South Korea’s intelligence company stated final week that North Korea had despatched greater than 13,000 containers of artillery, missiles and different typical weapons to Russia since August 2023. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned earlier this month that North Korea is “not nearly transferring weapons” however personnel too to assist Russian forces.
President Yoon pledged help for added South Korean weapons gross sales to Poland, together with the sale of $7 billion price of K2 tanks. To date, South Korea has helped Ukraine by offering arms to america and Ukraine’s neighbors, however he stated that might change.
“We’ve got had a precept of in a roundabout way supplying deadly weapons” to combatants, he advised reporters, “however we will be extra versatile and overview the coverage relying on North Korea’s navy actions.”
Even when they do struggle on the entrance traces, analysts consider North Korean troops will likely be relegated to a supporting position within the battle.
Lee Ho-ryung, a researcher on the Korea Institute for Protection Analyses, a authorities suppose tank in Seoul, says North Korean troops might be despatched to put on down Ukraine’s offensive into Russia’s Kursk area.
The North Koreans will probably be put “accountable for safety and such at first. However as time goes by, and with coaching, they can help Russian operations,” Lee says. “Then, it’s anticipated that there will likely be many casualties throughout that course of.”
South Korean Protection Minister Kim Yong-hyun advised lawmakers Thursday that North Korean troops “are assessed to be mere cannon fodder mercenaries.” North Korean chief Kim Jong Un, he added, “has offered his individuals’s military for an unlawful battle of aggression.”
North Korean state media have made no point out of deploying troops to Russia, and the South’s intelligence company says North Korea could also be sequestering members of the family of troops despatched to Russia, presumably to quell home discontent on the deployment.
Even when the North Korean deployment has restricted navy worth, analysts say it sends necessary messages to main powers.
North Korea has named Russia as its prime international coverage precedence, and in June, signed a treaty, ratified by Russia’s parliament on Thursday, which permits for mutual help if both nation comes below assault. Deploying troops might be seen as cementing that deal.
For Ukraine, pointing to North Korean intervention strengthens the Ukrainian authorities’s appeals for Western navy assist. South Korea’s suggestion that it may arm Ukraine is music to Kyiv’s ears, argues Yoon Sukjoon, a senior analysis fellow on the Korea Institute for Maritime Technique, and a retired South Korean navy captain.
“South Korea saying: ‘We are going to now stand on the U.S. aspect and promote offensive weapons to Ukraine’ helps Ukraine,” he says, “and I feel that is in the end what Ukraine wished to get from President Zelenskyy’s disclosure” of the North Korean deployment.
That stated, Yoon and different analysts consider South Korea will reply cautiously to any North Korean troop deployment, to maintain Russia from giving North Korea the navy help that it seeks as a reward for sending troops.
Moscow has warned Seoul to not get entangled in Ukraine. “It’s needed to consider the implications for the safety of South Korea” if it entered the battle in Ukraine, Russian Overseas Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova stated Wednesday. “The Russian Federation will react harshly to any steps that will pose a menace to the safety of the nation and its residents.”
Se Eun Gong contributed to this report from Seoul.
