Russian President Vladimir Putin has threatened South Korea against supplying arms to Ukraine after he visited North Korea saying Seoul would be making a “big mistake”.
Putin made the comment after Seoul said it was considering such a possibility in response to the pact between North Korea and Russia to help each other in the event of “aggression” against either country, reported BBC.
Russia “will… [make] decisions which are unlikely to please the current leadership of South Korea” if Seoul decides to supply arms to Kyiv, Putin told reporters in Vietnam on Thursday.
He also warned that Russia is willing to arm North Korea if the US and its allies continue supplying Ukraine with weapons.
“Those who supply these weapons believe that they are not at war with us. I said, including in Pyongyang, that we then reserve the right to supply weapons to other regions of the world,” said the Russian President.
South Korea has earlier condemned the Russian-North Korea pact as a threat to its national security and the national security adviser Chang Ho-jin said his country planned to “reconsider the issue of arms support to Ukraine.”
Reacting to Putin’s remark, South Korea’s presidential office said on Friday it would consider “various options” in supplying arms to Ukraine and its stance will “depend on how Russia approaches this issue”.
Yoon Suk-yeol’s office also summoned the Russian ambassador Georgy Zinoviev to register a protest against the pact demanding that Moscow “immediately ceases” military cooperation with Pyongyang.
The US called Putin’s remark as “incredibly concerning” adding that it might violate UN Security Council resolutions that were supported by Russia, reported CNN.
“It would destabilize the Korean Peninsula,” State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller told reporters, and “depending on the type of weapons they provide, might violate UN Security Council resolutions that Russia itself has supported.”
