South Korea may send weapons to Ukraine if North Korean troops deploy to the war

The recent revelation that North Korea has sent troops to Russia to possibly participate in the war against Ukraine has promoted serious questions in South Korea about how it should respond to the situation. 

Reports from sources ranging from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to the U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin have revealed that there are North Korean soldiers in Russia and they may get deployed to the frontlines of the war in Ukraine.

On October 23rd, the United States confirmed for the first time that it had evidence that North Korean troops were in Russia. However, Washington is still currently unsure what those soldiers are doing there. 

“What exactly are they doing? Left to be seen,” U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin told reports at a military base in Italy according to the Washington Post. Austin called the situation “very, very serious.” 

However, despite the world’s reaction to North Korean troops being present in Russia, it was a situation South Korea Defense Minister Kim Yong-Hyun warned could happen on October 8th while speaking to the country’s parliament. 

"As Russia and North Korea have signed a mutual treaty akin to a military alliance, the possibility of such a deployment is highly likely," Kim said according to South Korean news outlet Yonhap News. 

In June 2024, Russian President Vladimir Putin visited North Korea for the first time in 24 years. While in the country, Putin signed a comprehensive security deal with Kim Jong-Un which the Associated Press described as “the strongest since the Cold War.”

The security deal pledged that each country would provide assistance to the other in the event that either faced aggression from another country, which explained why the South Korean Defense Minister believed a North Korean deployment to Ukraine was possible. 

However, now that it is clear a sizable North Korean military force is in Russia, somewhere between 3,000 and 10,000 according to Ukrainian and U.S. officials, South Korea is trying to sort out an appropriate response. Reports indicate that such a response could include sending weapons to Ukraine. 

On October 22nd, Newsweek reported that an official from the office of South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol revealed that Seoul was considering sending weapons to aid Ukraine in its defense if North Korean troops were to be deployed to the frontlines of the war. 

"We are considering supplying defensive weapons as part of a phased approach, and if necessary, we may also consider offensive measures," the official said. This revelation has now been confirmed by Yoon Suk Yeol. 

On October 24th, President Yoon said that South Korea “won’t sit idle” while the North was sending troops to Ukraine and said that he would send weapons to Ukraine in response according to the Associated Press.

“If North Korea dispatches special forces to the Ukraine war as part of Russia-North Korea cooperation, we will support Ukraine in stages and also review and implement measures necessary for security on the Korean Peninsula,” Yoon told reporters at a press conference with Polish President Andrzej Duda following a meeting between the leaders. 

“While we have maintained our principle of not directly supplying lethal weapons, we can also review our stance more flexibly, depending on the level of North Korean military activities,” President Yoon added. 

If South Korea does send weapons to Ukraine, it would mark a stark departure from its long-held policy of not supplying its weapons to countries that are actively involved in armed conflict according to the Associated Press. 

Yoon also said that North Korean troop deployment to Russia was a “provocation that threatens global security beyond just the Korean Peninsula and Europe.” However, how this threat will develop has yet to be seen, but one thing is clear: it is being interpreted as an escalation that will result in a serious response. 

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