Ukraine may receive lethal weapons from South Korea - media
The authorities of the Republic of Korea are ready to move away from the official policy of supporting non-lethal weapons and provide Ukraine with defensive and offensive weapons. Such a decision may be a response to the DPRK joining the war.
According to Censor.NET, citing Interfax-Ukraine, the South Korean news agency News1.kr reported this.
"The Office of the President has announced that it will consider all scenarios that will develop in connection with the issue of sending North Korean special forces to Russia and will prepare measures in response. In particular, it was decided to move away from the official policy of supporting non-lethal weapons and leave open the possibility of supplying lethal weapons to Ukraine if the situation worsens in the future," the statement said.
The presidential office has not released specific countermeasures to maintain strategic ambiguity. However, a senior official noted that South Korea could "consider supporting defensive weapons by looking at scenarios step by step, and if the restrictions seem excessive, we may consider supporting offensive weapons at the very end."
Specific decisions will be based on the current level of military cooperation between Russia and the DPRK. If this level exceeds the limits acceptable to Seoul, South Korea may provide Ukraine with lethal weapons.
DPRK Military Participation in Russia's War Against Ukraine
On October 17, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that Russia was training ten thousand North Korean soldiers for the war in Ukraine, including infantry.
Earlier, the Washington Post wrote that several thousand soldiers from the DPRK are being trained in Russia and may be sent to the front in Ukraine.
To recap, in early October, South Korean Defense Minister Kim Yong-hyun said that the DPRK could send its military to the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine in support of Russia's war against our country.
The head of the Center for Countering Disinformation, Andrii Kovalenko, said that the information about Russia's alleged preparation of DPRK soldiers to be sent to the front in Ukraine was not true.
On October 15, the media reported that on the basis of the 11th separate airborne assault brigade of the Russian occupation army, the Russians began to form a so-called "special Buryat battalion". It will be staffed by North Korean citizens.
Subsequently, the head of the Defense Intelligence Service, Kyrylo Budanov, said that nearly 11,000 soldiers from North Korea are currently training in eastern Russia to fight against Ukraine. They will be ready for combat as early as November 1.
At the same time, Pentagon chief Lloyd Austin said that the United States has not yet confirmedthat North Korea is sending troops to Russia.
South Korea summoned the Russian ambassador to Seoul because of the DPRK's participation in the war against Ukraine.
It was reported that eighteen North Korean soldiers had already escaped from the Russian army positions on the border of Ukraine with Bryansk and Kursk regions. Later it became known that they had been detained.
South Korea's permanent representative to the UN Security Council, Jonkuk Hwang, said that Russia could pay for the participation of North Korea's military in the war against Ukraine with nuclear weapons technology.
And The Guardian wrote that Russia may send North Korean troops to capture Pokrovsk in Donetsk region or to conduct winter assaults on other important areas on Ukraine's eastern front.
