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SEOUL.- South Korea called on Friday to the Russian ambassador to protest the defense agreement signed between Russia and North Korea and said it would evaluate send weapons to Ukraine, which represents a considerable change in its policies.
Russian President Vladimir Putin had warned South Korea that Sending weapons to Ukraine would be a “big mistake”and that it could send war material to North Korea, a statement that generated alarm in the United States.
South Korean vice foreign minister Kim Hong-kyun summoned the Russian ambassador Georgy Zinoviev to communicate Seoul’s position on the Russian-North Korean pact. The South Korean Foreign Ministry did not confirm what was said during the meeting.
But yesterday, after knowing the pact between Kim Jong-un and Putinthe office of the president of South Korea, Yoon Suk-yeolissued a statement in which the agreement was condemnedwhich he called a threat to the security of his country and a violation of UN Security Council resolutions, in addition to warning that it would have negative consequences on Seoul’s relations with Moscow.
“It’s stupid that two parties with a history of starting wars of invasion – the Korean War and the war in Ukraine – now pledge mutual military cooperation under the premise of a preventive attack by the international community that will never happen”Yoon’s office said.
At UN headquarters in New York, South Korean Foreign Minister Cho Tae-yul said it was “deplorable” that Russia acts in violation of various United Nations resolutions against South Korea that Moscow voted for. in favor.
Yoon’s national security advisor, Chang Ho-jinsaid that Seoul would reconsider the issue of providing weapons to Ukraine to help that country repel the Russian invasion.
South Korea, a growing arms exporter with a well-equipped U.S.-backed military, has provided humanitarian and other assistance to Ukraine and joined Washington-led economic sanctions against Moscow. But it has not provided weapons to kyiv directly, citing its traditional policy of not supplying weapons to countries with active conflicts.
Speaking to reporters in Hanoi, where he traveled after his visit to Pyongyang, Putin said yesterday that providing weapons to Ukraine would be “a very big mistake” on the part of the South Korean government. If that happens, the Russian president warned that it would lead to taking “decisions that are unlikely to please the current South Korean government.”
He noted that the South Korean government “should not” be worried about the agreement” if he does not plan to carry out any aggression against Pyongyang.
“Sending lethal weapons to Ukraine into combat zones would be a big mistake,” Putin said. “If that happens, “We will make the corresponding decision, which will probably not be to the liking of the current leaders of South Korea.”he added.
The Russian president also evoked the possibility of send military material to North Koreaa country with which it signed a defense agreement on Monday that caused concern in South Korea.
“Those who send [misiles a Ucrania] “They think they are not fighting us, but I have already said, even in Pyongyang, that we reserve the right to supply weapons to other regions of the world, in relation to our agreements with the DPRK.” North), he stressed.
“I don’t rule it out,” he said.
The United States considered Putin’s statement “very worrying.” The shipment of Russian weapons to the secretive Asian communist country “could destabilize the Korean Peninsula, potentially, depending on the type of weapons, and could violate Security Council resolutions that Russia itself has supported,” declared the State Department spokesperson. , Matthew Miller.
Hours earlier on Friday, the powerful sister of the North Korean leader Kim Jong-un issued a vague threat of retaliation after South Korean activists released balloons with anti-Pyongyang messages across the borderand South Korean forces said they had fired warning shots to repel North Korean soldiers who briefly crossed the border for the third time this month.
Leaflet-throwing campaigns by South Korean activists across the border have sparked the resumption of Cold War-style psychological warfare on the inter-Korean delimitation.
South Korean activists, led by North Korean defector Park Sang-hak, said they sent 20 balloons with 300,000 pamphlets, 5,000 USB flash drives with South Korean songs and television dramas, and 3,000 US dollar billsfrom the border town of Paju.
To Pyongyang those pitches irritate himas he fears they will demoralize soldiers and residents on the border and eventually undermine leader Kim Jong Un’s authority, analysts say.
In a statement published by the official North Korean news agency, Kim Yo Jong, the sister of the North Korean leader, called the activists “scum deserters” and issued what appeared to be a threat of retaliation.
“When you do something that you were clearly told not to do, it is logical that you end up facing something that you should not have to face,” the leader said, without specifying what the North would do.
On Wednesday, Russia and North Korea shook the region and the rest of the world by signing a pact to act in mutual defense in the event of war. The agreement, according to experts, could mean the strongest link between Moscow and Pyongyang since the end of the Cold War and comes at a time when Russia faces growing isolation due to the war against Ukraine and both nations are experiencing increasing tensions with the West.
AP and AFP Agencies
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