Russian attack | Stoltenberg asks Ukraine for arms assistance from South Korea, which is becoming one of the world’s leading arms exporters

Foreign countries|Russian invasion

On Monday Visiting NATO Secretary General in Seoul Jens Stoltenberg asked South Korea for military support to Ukraine. South Korea is a growing exporter of arms, but its law prohibits arms exports to countries in ongoing military conflict.

Stoltenberg appealed to South Korea to change its legislation. He recalled that many NATO countries, such as Germany and Norway, had done so after Russia launched a full-scale offensive in Ukraine in February 2022.

“If we believe in freedom, democracy, if we don’t want autocracy and tyranny to win, they need weapons,” he said, speaking at the Chey Institute in Seoul, according to Reuters and CNN channel by.

Stay will hardly push South Korea to change its legislation, estimates the leading researcher Bart Gaens From the Global Security research program of the Foreign Policy Institute. Direct arms aid to Ukraine would not be in South Korea’s interest.

“There is a fear in the air that Russia would start to cooperate with North Korea more openly than before, for example in relation to nuclear weapons,” says Gaens.

The US has said that Russia is cooperating with North Korea already. Its intelligence has, among other things, accused North Korea of ​​exporting weapons to Russia. The country has not recognized the issue.

According to Gaens, however, South Korean legislation leaves loopholes that allow indirect arms exports to Ukraine. After all, the country is able to sell weapons to the United States and European NATO countries, which in turn export military equipment to Ukraine.

South Korea has signed contracts to sell hundreds of tanks to Europe, Reuters reports. In addition, the United States has agreed to buy about 100,000 artillery shells from the country.

South Korea has made the biggest arms deal with Poland, which has supplied Ukraine with a lot of military aid. In an agreement worth more than 12 billion dollars, South Korea has promised to deliver to Poland, among other things, almost a thousand K2 Black Panther tanks, hundreds of K9 Thunder tank howitzers and dozens of KAI T-50 Golden Eagle jets, which are also suitable for combat missions, says The Washington Post.

According to the newspaper, in November 2022, South Korea’s arms exports had exceeded 17 billion dollars, while in the whole of 2021 it was a total of just over seven billion dollars.

Russian the attack more than doubled South Korea’s arms exports, but the trend has been increasing before. In the years 2017–2021, South Korea was the world’s eighth largest arms exporter, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) from the report. It was preceded by the United States, Russia, France, China, Germany, Italy and Britain.

Of the top eight, South Korea had clearly increased its arms exports the most, up to 177 percent, when compared to the previous five years.

The South Korean government aims for the country to become the world’s fourth largest arms exporter by 2027, reports Korea Joong Ang Daily newspaper.

South Korea’s popularity as an arms exporter has been increased by its reasonable price and advanced technology. According to The Washington Post, its popularity has grown, especially in countries that want to replenish their arsenals of Soviet-era weapons.

NATO the Secretary General’s visit to Seoul is part of his Asian trip, which will head to Japan after South Korea. Japan has traditionally had strict arms export laws, but the Russian attack has prompted it to reexamine its laws and increase its defense budget.

South Korean soldiers in a joint military exercise with US soldiers on January 13, 2023. Picture: KIM HONG-JI / Reuters

South Korea and Japan have both intensified their cooperation with the defense alliance NATO for the past few years. In June 2022, NATO invited its Asia-Pacific partner countries – South Korea, Japan, Australia and New Zealand – to its summit in Madrid for the first time.

In the fall, South Korea opened its NATO mission in Brussels as the last of the four, he says The Korea Herald newspaper.

The strengthening of the relationship between South Korea and Japan with the West is a matter of long-term development, states Bart Gaens of the Foreign Policy Institute.

“South Korea and Japan are important allies to promote stability in the region.”

Russian the attack has deepened the cooperation even further. According to Gaens, the purpose of Stoltenberg’s trip to Asia is also to promote stability in Asia, on the one hand, to seek support from Asian allies, when the West is looking for a common front to condemn Russia’s attack.

The idea that it is a conflict between democratic and authoritarian states is, of course, very Western, and most of the world’s countries do not share it, Gaens reflects. However, in South Korea and Japan, which live next to the dictatorships of North Korea and China, Stoltenberg can claim that what happened in Ukraine could also happen in Asia.