By KIM TONG-HYUNG
January 30, 2023
South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol, right, shakes hands with NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg during a meeting at the presidential office in Seoul, South Korea, Monday, Jan. 30, 2023. (South Korea Presidential Office/Yonhap via AP)
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — NATO Secretary-General Jens
Stoltenberg on Monday called for South Korea to provide direct military support
to Ukraine, saying Kyiv is in urgent need of weapons to fight off the prolonged
Russian invasion.
South Korea, a growing arms exporter with a well-equipped,
U.S.-backed military, has provided humanitarian aid and other support to
Ukraine while joining U.S.-led economic sanctions against Moscow. But it has
not directly provided arms to Ukraine, citing a long-standing policy of not
supplying weapons to countries actively engaged in conflict.
Speaking at a forum in Seoul, Stoltenberg, a former
Norwegian prime minister, urged South Korea to “step up on the specific issue
of military support.” He noted that several NATO members and allies, including
Germany, Norway and Sweden, have changed their policies of not exporting
weapons to countries in conflict to support Ukraine.
“If we believe in freedom, if we believe in democracy, if we
don’t want autocracy and tyranny to win, then they need weapons. That’s the
reality,” said Stoltenberg, who arrived in South Korea on Sunday on a trip that
also includes Japan.
Stoltenberg also met with South Korean President Yoon Suk
Yeol on Monday. They discussed South Korea’s commitment to support Ukraine and
NATO’s possible role in dissuading North Korea from its growing nuclear
ambitions following an unprecedented number of ballistic missile tests in 2022,
Yoon’s office said.
South Korean officials didn’t confirm any specific
discussions about sending arms to Ukraine.
Following a meeting with South Korean Foreign Minister Park
Jin on Sunday, Stoltenberg mentioned U.S. intelligence reports accusing North
Korea of providing weapons to Russia to support its war in Ukraine, which he
said highlights how security between the regions is “more and more
interconnected.”
Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, South Korea has reached
billions of dollars worth of deals to provide tanks, howitzers, fighter jets
and other weapons systems to Poland, a NATO member. An American official said
in November that the United States has agreed to buy 100,000 artillery rounds
from South Korean manufacturers to provide to Ukraine, although South Korean
officials have maintained that the munitions were meant to refill depleted U.S.
stocks.
In
an interview with The Associated Press this month, Yoon said that South
Korean laws, as well as domestic public opinion, make it difficult for his
government to arm Ukraine while it is at war. But he expressed openness to more
arms deals with the United States in the future, noting the two allies
regularly buy military equipment from one another.
Stoltenberg’s comments at the forum came hours after North
Korea condemned his visits to South Korea and Japan, saying that NATO was
trying to put its “military boots in the region” and attempting to pressure
America’s Asian allies into providing weapons to Ukraine.
In a statement released by the state-run Korean Central News
Agency, North Korea said that increasing cooperation between NATO and U.S.
allies in Asia was part of a process to create an “Asian version of NATO” that
would raise tensions in the region.
North Korea over the weekend also issued two separate
statements condemning the United States over its decision to supply Ukraine
with advanced tanks, calling it a sinister move to escalate a “proxy war” aimed
at destroying Moscow.
The series of statements underscore North Korea’s alignment
with Russia over the war in Ukraine, which North Korea has blamed on the West.
However, North Korea has repeatedly denied U.S. accusations
that it has been sending large supplies of artillery shells and other
ammunition to Russia to support its offensive in Ukraine and warned on Sunday
that the Biden administration would face unspecified “undesirable” consequences
if it continues to spread the “self-made rumor.”
https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-war-nato-urges-south-korea-participation-be006936069bfed0ec4b39491754b333
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