President of South Korea, Yoon Suk Yeol | Photograph credit score: Reuters
South Korea, a serious arms exporter, doesn’t rule out supplying weapons on to Ukraine, President Yoon Suk Yeol mentioned on Thursday (Nov 7, 2024), signaling a attainable change in Seoul’s stance on the problem.
Yoon additionally revealed that he had mentioned North Korea with US President-elect Donald Trump in a cellphone dialog that set the stage for a gathering within the “close to future.”
South Korea has a long-standing coverage of not offering weapons to international locations in battle, however indicated that might change in mild of Pyongyang’s deployment of troops to Russia to help its battle efforts in Ukraine.
“Now, relying on the extent of North Korean involvement, we are going to steadily regulate our help technique in phases,” Yoon mentioned at a information convention in Seoul.
“Which means we don’t rule out the potential of supplying weapons.”
North Korea helps Russia
North Korea has develop into one of the crucial vocal and essential supporters of Russia’s large-scale offensive in Ukraine.
Seoul and the West have lengthy accused Pyongyang of supplying artillery shells and missiles to Moscow to be used in Ukraine.
The most recent allegations, primarily based on intelligence reviews, point out that North Korea has deployed round 10,000 troops to Russia, suggesting even deeper involvement within the battle and sparking protests in Seoul, kyiv and Western capitals.
Yoon mentioned his workplace would monitor developments associated to the North Korean troopers’ operations and that if he determined to supply weapons to kyiv, the preliminary batch could be defensive.
“If we proceed with weapons help, we’d prioritize defensive weapons as a primary consideration,” he mentioned with out elaborating.
Trump assembly
In a name with Trump that happened earlier than the press convention, Yoon mentioned the 2 males had mentioned a lot of points associated to North Korea and agreed to a face-to-face assembly.
“We agreed to fulfill within the close to future… I believe there will likely be an opportunity to fulfill this yr,” Yoon mentioned.
Among the many matters mentioned had been the North’s current measures, together with sending garbage-carrying balloons south, he mentioned.
Revealed – Nov 07, 2024 02:01 pm IST
