Furious South Korean political leaders have threatened to send weapons to Ukraine in response to Vladimir Putin’s latest moves.
They clashed after the Russian leader signed a defense pact with North Korean despot Kim Jong-un during a two-day visit to the pariah state.
Military analysts fear the move is the first step toward Pyongyang’s troops arriving in Ukraine to intensify Putin’s bloody campaign.
The text of the agreement states that each country would provide immediate military aid if the other were invaded.
South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol’s office said: “It is absurd that two parties with a history of launching wars of invasion – the Korean War and the war in Ukraine – are now promising mutual military cooperation under the premise of a pre-emptive strike. on the part of the international community, that will never happen.”
Angry South Korean political leaders have threatened to send weapons to Ukraine in response to Vladimir Putin’s latest moves.
Russian President Vladimir Putin drives North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in an Aurus limousine in Pyongyang, North Korea, June 19, 2024.
Yoon’s national security adviser, Chang Ho-jin, said Seoul was “planning to reconsider the issue of providing arms support to Ukraine.”
He added: ‘Any cooperation that directly or indirectly helps strengthen North Korea’s military capabilities is a violation of UN Security Council resolutions.
“Russia’s own violation of the resolution and its support for North Korea will inevitably have a negative impact on the relationship between South Korea and Russia.”
South Korea, which aspires to become one of the world’s leading arms exporters, has signed major deals with European countries.
But it has a long-standing policy prohibiting it from selling weapons in active conflict zones, which it has so far adhered to despite calls from Washington and kyiv to reconsider. It came as Putin received a new round of red carpet treatment in communist-led Vietnam yesterday.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and his South Korean counterpart Yoon Suk Yeol shake hands following their remarks following talks in kyiv on July 15, 2023.
Putin and Kim Jong Un review an honor guard during the official welcoming ceremony at Kim Il Sung Square in Pyongyang, North Korea, on June 19.
Soldiers formed an honor guard at Hanoi airport as the presidential plane arrived. Putin was greeted by the country’s deputy prime minister before being led to a limousine.
The United States, which is among the country’s top trading partners, accused Vietnam of normalizing Russia’s “flagrant violations of international law.”
Last year, US President Joe Biden paid a state visit to Vietnam and received a similar welcome. Critics have called the Hanoi regime’s strategy of maintaining relations with all parties “bamboo diplomacy,” a reference to having strong roots but flexible branches.
Hanoi’s diplomatic approach dates back to the Cold War, when it decided to be a friend to all countries. Nguyen Khac Giant of the Iseas-Yusof Ishak Institute – a Singapore-based research center – said: ‘Vietnam has played this game quite well. It has been actively neutral (in disputes between the United States and Russia). “Hanoi knows that it must balance different powers to obtain benefits from them.”