For the first time, South Korea threatens to supply weapons to Ukraine. Here’s how Seoul responds to the agreement between Russian President Putin and Kim Jong Un on mutual aid in the event of war. Tension is increasing in South East Asia.
South Korea’s president condemned the deal as a threat to the South’s security and a violation of United Nations Security Council resolutions. And he said he was seriously thinking about supplying more high-performance weapons than he has already sent to Ukraine to help it fight the Russian invasion.
Together with Seoul, the USA and Japan also “strongly” condemned the agreement signed on Wednesday in Pyongyang. Foreign Minister Cho Tae-yul spoke by phone with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, discussing how to respond to the outcome of the summit between Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, the ministry said of Seoul. In another conversation, Cho discussed the matter with Japanese Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa, agreeing on the “serious concerns” about the strengthening of military and economic ties between the hermit country and the Russian Federation. Seoul and Washington have committed to strengthening extended deterrence and trilateral security cooperation with Japan to better address the North’s nuclear and missile threats.
South Korea responds to Vladimir Putin’s deal with North Korea: what’s happening and why tension is increasing
The agreement between Kim Jong Un and Putin provides that if one of the countries is invaded and pushed into a state of war, the other must deploy “all means at its disposal without delay” to provide “military and other assistance ».
“It is absurd that two sides with a history of wars of invasion – the Korean War and the war in Ukraine – are now promising mutual military cooperation on the premise of a pre-emptive strike by the international community that will never happen,” he said the office of Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol.
Meanwhile, Putin continues his trip abroad, to Vietnam where he signed a series of agreements with To Lam. He was greeted by schoolchildren waving Russian and Vietnamese flags. The two have signed cooperation pacts in education, science and technology, oil and gas exploration and health.
They also agreed to work on a roadmap for a nuclear science and technology center in Vietnam.
After the talks, Putin said that the two countries share an interest in “developing a reliable security architecture” in the Asia-Pacific region based on the non-use of force and peaceful resolution of disputes without room for “political-military blockades closed”.
In South Korea there is a lot of apprehension about Russia’s moves and for these agreements which expand his power and widen the ranks of his enemies. In addition to the formal warning to Moscow to “immediately stop” its military cooperation with Pyongyang and to “act responsibly”, First Vice Foreign Minister Kim Hong-kyun explained Seoul’s position to Russian Ambassador Georgy Zinoviev, to whom he delivered a protest against the treaty signed on Wednesday in Pyongyang by President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.
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