This image from the state-run Korean Central News Agency shows North Korean leader Kim Jong Un observing a launch drill on March 18, 2024. (KCNA)
North Korea is using its support for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine to test weapons it could deploy against the South in a future conflict, Ukraine’s ambassador to Seoul said in a news report Sunday.
Ukraine and South Korea share a common adversary, Ukrainian Ambassador to South Korea Dmytro Ponomarenko said in written remarks published by Yonhap News.
South Korea “should not forget that Pyongyang also uses Ukrainian soil as a testing ground for its weaponry, which could be used in future possible standoff,” Ponomarenko said.
Seoul “has no reason to hesitate in the development of full-scale military-technical cooperation” with Kyiv, he said.
“It’s a matter of interest for both Kyiv and Seoul,” he added.
North Korea has supplied Russia with artillery shells, short-range ballistic missiles, conventional arms, and troops since 2023, according to South Korea’s National Intelligence Service and the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency.
Photos of debris from a Russian attack in Ukraine on Jan. 2, 2024, indicate that the source of the damage “is almost certainly of a North Korean ballistic missile,” the DIA said in a May 29 report.
The evidence “highlights the evolving and strengthening relationship between North Korea and Russia,” the report said.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un met Friday with Russian Security Council Secretary Sergei Shoigu in Pyongyang and pledged “to invariably support Russia in the struggle for defending … security interests in the future,” the state-run Korean Central News Agency reported the next day.
The North has also dispatched between 10,000 and 12,000 troops to fight alongside Russia since October, according to the U.S., South Korean and Ukrainian militaries.
KCNA has not acknowledged that North Korean troops have deployed to Russia.
Ukrainian forces have captured at least two North Korean soldiers, one of whom stated he wished to defect to the South, according to interrogation videos posted online by the Ukrainian military.
Ponomarenko said it was premature to speculate on the soldiers’ release or their ultimate destination.
“Any decision regarding the soldiers’ future will be made in compliance with international law, individual rights, and through dialogue between the parties concerned,” he said, according to Yonhap.
Yoon Suk Yeol, South Korea’s impeached president, has condemned Russia’s invasion but declined to send lethal aid, citing trade policies that prohibit arms exports from affecting national security or international peace.
South Korea, a major arms exporter, has instead provided Kyiv with more than $2.3 billion in humanitarian aid and financial assistance.
Seoul will review its policy of supplying only non-lethal aid to Ukraine depending on Russia’s cooperation with North Korea, South Korean Prime Minister Han Duck-soo said in a speech in June.
Han was reinstated as prime minister and assumed the role of acting president Monday after South Korea’s Constitutional Court overturned his impeachment, which the National Assembly had approved on Dec. 27.
