South Korea on Oct. 21 summoned the Russian ambassador in Seoul, Georgy Zinoviev, to protest the dispatch of North Korean troops to assist Moscow's war against Ukraine, the Yonhap news agency reported.
South Korea's National Intelligence Service said it believes North Korea will deploy four brigades totalling 12,000 soldiers to the war in Ukraine, including special forces.
"There will be no war of the 1953 model. I am talking about Korean War. It ended in summer 2023 in Ukraine, when two professional armies of more than a million personnel each faced each other in the battlefield," said Valerii Zaluzhnyi, Ukraine's former commander-in-chief and current ambassador to the U.K.
The move came after Russia and China have blocked monitoring activities at the United Nations. In March, Moscow vetoed the annual renewal of the panel of experts monitoring U.N. sanctions against Pyongyang over its nuclear and ballistic missile programs.
Earlier in October, South Korean Defense Minister Kim Yong-Hyun told lawmakers that North Korea was likely planning to send troops to Ukraine to fight alongside Russia.
Victory in war is sometimes easy to define. World War II ended with Allied troops in control of Berlin and Tokyo, and with the German and Japanese leadership removed. The Vietnam War, on the other hand, ended in a clear defeat for the United States: North Vietnam conquered South Vietnam
"As Russia and North Korea have signed a mutual treaty akin to a military alliance, the possibility of such a deployment is highly likely," South Korean Defense Minister Kim Yong-Hyun said in the parliament.
Seoul previously donated $12 million to the NATO-Ukraine Trust Fund for healthcare and rehabilitation of injured soldiers.
Growing military cooperation between Russia and North Korea poses a "distinct threat and a grave challenge to the peace and security on the Korean peninsula and in Europe," South Korea's President Yoon Suk Yeol told Reuters on July 8.
Though Stoltenberg didn't refer to it, Seoul said it would consider supplying Ukraine with weapons in response to Moscow's recently announced security agreement with North Korea.
Aurus, the luxury car company in question, imported at least $34 million in South Korean parts between 2018 and 2023, according to customs data seen by Reuters.
"There are various options for providing weapons, and our position on the recent developments between Russia and North Korea depends on how Russia approaches the situation going forward," the unnamed presidential official told Yonhap.
Russia will take decisions that are "unlikely to please South Korea" if Seoul decides to send arms to Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin told reporters at the end of his visit to Vietnam on June 20.
Up until now, Seoul has only provided humanitarian aid to Kyiv, though it has been reported the country has indirectly supplied artillery shells via the U.S.
Seoul spotted at least 10,000 containers being shipped from North Korea to Russia, South Korea’s Defense Minister Shin Won-sik said. Pyongyang also sent dozens of ballistic missiles that Moscow troops launch against Ukraine, he added.
South Korea's intelligence service is conducting a review into suspicions that North Korea has provided Russia with artillery shells and other weaponry made in the 1970s, the country's National Intelligence Service (NIS) said on May 12.
Russia is currently holding a number of U.S. nationals on what are widely believed to be trumped up charges.
South Korea has imposed new sanctions against two Russian organizations, two individuals, and two ships over cooperation with North Korea, the South Korean Foreign Ministry reported on April 2.
North Korea has been shaping up to be Russia's leading weapons supplier, reportedly providing Moscow with extensive military packages, including ballistic missiles and over 3 million artillery shells.
The two countries also said they were increasingly concerned that Russia has been providing refined oil to North Korea.
A South Korean citizen has been arrested in Russia for the first time on alleged espionage charges, Russian state-owned news agency TASS said on March 11.
Leading international electronics companies, including Samsung and Xiaomi, have resumed advertising in Russia after suspending product promotion after the start of the full-scale invasion, Russian state media outlet Kommersant reported, citing TelecomDaily data.
South Korea plans to tighten export controls on Russia and Belarus for goods that could be used for military purposes, the South Korean Trade Ministry announced on Feb. 26.
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