The secretary general of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), Jens Stoltenberg has said that South Korea’s potential arms support for Ukraine should not be considered in the same light as North Korea’s alleged delivery of munitions to Russia, given the illegal nature of the Russian invasion.
Stoltenberg also said NATO would welcome “any significant support” from South Korea to help Ukraine in the fight against Russia, noting that issues such as threats from North Korea and the war in Ukraine show that ensuring security is not something that is limited by regions.
“We should not make any kind of moral comparison between North Korea’s support for Russia and South Korea’s potential support for Ukraine, because this is war aggression,” Stoltenberg said in an interview with Yonhap News Agency. , in the Belgian capital, Brussels.
The secretary general added that Moscow has broken the law and attacked a neighbour, so supporting Russia’s war is illegal. On the other hand, supporting Ukraine to defend itself is legal. It is stipulated in the UN Charter. The NATO chief stated that any attempt to equate support for Russia with support for Ukraine is “completely wrong.”
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The implications of a possible supply of weapons by South Korea to Ukraine
Stoltenberg’s comments came after Seoul indicated the possibility of providing weapons to kyiv, after Pyongyang and Moscow signed a new treatyin which they promise mutual military assistance in the event that either of them suffers an armed attack.
South Korean national security advisor Chang Ho-jin announced that he could consider supplying weapons to Ukraine and that the decision will depend on Moscow’s actions.
On this, Stoltenberg said he welcomed any significant support for Ukraine, adding that South Korea has “an advanced defense industry…, a large amount of ammunition and all the things that Ukraine needs,” but, of course, it is up to the country make those decisions.
South Korea’s indication that it might change its policy of providing only non-lethal aid to Ukraine has sent relations between Seoul and Moscow to a low point, with both sides they warn each other that they should not take any additional measures that could lead their relations to an “irreversible” state.
According to the senior official, more than one million artillery shells have been transported directly from North Korea to Russia and to the front lines, emphasizing that North Korea should not support Russia’s illegal war against Ukraine. “Their bilateral mutual defense agreement simply highlights how in tune they are currently and this is an issue that needs to be taken very seriously,” he said.
Stoltenberg also called on the world not to let Russia win this war, because it would send the wrong message to other authoritarian countries that they can get whatever they want if they use military force, in violation of international law.
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