South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol tours the town of Bucha, Ukraine, July 15, 2023. (South Korean presidential office)
CAMP HUMPHREYS, South Korea — South Korea will take “phased measures” in response to reports suggesting the North is deploying troops to aid Russia in its invasion of Ukraine, according to a news release Tuesday from the office of President Yoon Suk Yeol.
The South will “not sit idly by,” but would “respond firmly with the international community if the current military collusion between North Korea and Russia continues,” the release states.
The statement followed an emergency meeting in Seoul of the South’s national security council, called in response to intelligence and news reports revealing thousands of North Korean troops are in Russia to support its two-year invasion of Ukraine, according to the release.
Roughly 1,500 North Korean troops were deployed to Russia by ship earlier this month and given Russian uniforms and weapons, South Korea’s National Intelligence Service reported Friday. Another 10,000 North Korean troops followed them, an intelligence service spokeswoman told Stars and Stripes by phone Tuesday.
South Korean government spokespeople customarily speak to the media on condition of anonymity.
If Moscow’s military cooperation with the North continues to pose “a serious threat” to its security, the South will “prepare corresponding measures,” according to the release.
“The government will take phased measures in line with the progress of Russia-North Korea military cooperation …,” Yoon’s office said.
Security issues in the Indo-Pacific and Atlantic “are inseparable” and the South will take unspecified “step-by-step measures” in response to Pyongyang’s military aid to Moscow, Yoon told NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte by phone Monday, according to a news release from Yoon’s office that day.
Rutte said NATO was prepared to cooperate with the South in its response to the North’s troop deployment; he and Yoon agreed that sending North Korean troops to Ukraine violates international law and U.N. Security Council resolutions, the release said.
The deployment of North Korean troops on Russian soil marks a deepening of military ties between Russia and North Korea, as well as escalating the South’s role in the Russia-Ukraine conflict.
During a June summit in Pyongyang, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and Russian President Vladimir Putin pledged mutual military support if either were attacked.
The U.S. State Department has accused North Korea of exporting ballistic missiles and artillery shells to Russia since 2023.
Following the Kim-Putin summit, Yoon’s office said it would review its policy of sending only nonlethal aid to Ukraine. Sending weapons would depend on Russia’s military cooperation with the North, South Korean national security adviser Chang Ho-jin said during a televised interview June 23.
South Korea, a global arms exporter, has supplied Ukraine with humanitarian aid but has resisted sending lethal weapons, citing its nonconfrontational policy in the conflict.
Seoul has instead supplied artillery shells to the U.S. military, which has struggled to maintain its stockpiles while exporting shells to Ukraine, according to U.S. and South Korean news reports citing unnamed government officials last year.
