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South Korea said it might send weapons to Ukraine.
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It came after Russia signed a security treaty with North Korea.
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Russia’s alliance with North Korea has increased tensions in the region.
South Korea said it could send weapons to Ukraine after Russia signed a security pact with Seoul’s biggest regional foe, North Korea.
“We will reconsider the issue of supplying weapons to Ukraine,” South Korean national security adviser Chang Ho-jin told reporters late Thursday after the Russian president signed the pact with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Pyongyang .
“Any cooperation that helps increase North Korea’s military power is a violation of the UN Security Council,” Chang added. “There is no point in promising military cooperation assuming that the international community will carry out an attack in advance that will not happen.”
Putin this week became the first Russian leader to visit North Korea in a quarter century, cementing an alliance with the pariah state.
Thanks to the partnership, North Korea has provided Russia with much-needed artillery for its war in Ukraine. In return, reports say, Russia provided North Korea with satellite technology.
The security pact signed by the leaders, in which they pledged to provide each other with military support in a conflict, has increased tensions in East Asia, where North Korea has long threatened U.S. regional allies South Korea and Japan with an attack .
North Korea is under international sanctions to curb its nuclear weapons program, and while Russia remains committed to enforcing the sanctions on paper, critics say it undermines efforts to isolate North Korea.
Russian diplomats effectively dissolved the U.N. panel responsible for monitoring North Korean sanctions in March.
South Korea summoned Russia’s ambassador on Friday over the pact, with South Korean Foreign Minister Cho Tae-yul and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken condemning the deal as a threat to regional stability and security.
In response, during a trip to Vietnam on Friday, Putin warned South Korea against arming Ukraine, saying it would be a “big mistake.”
Moscow “will… [make] South Korea’s current leadership is unlikely to be satisfied if it goes ahead and sends weapons to Ukraine, Putin said, BBC News reported.
But he also said South Korea has “nothing to worry about” from the new pact as long as it does not commit aggression against North Korea.
South Korea is among US allies that have offered help to Ukraine in the fight against the Russian invasion, but has so far failed to supply Kiev with weapons.
Analysts at the American think tank Institute for the Study of War say Russia is trying to recreate Cold War alliances to counter American global power.
Read the original article on Business Insider
