Attempts by South Korean authorities to spread information that North Korea wants to send troops to Ukraine to help Russia may be aimed at distracting attention from Seoul’s internal problems, but the time is too dangerous to be “playing with fire” now, experts quoted by the South China Morning Post said.
Earlier, South Korean media outlet Yonhap said Seoul is considering sending a team of experts to Ukraine to monitor North Korean military personnel that Pyongyang reportedly intends to send to participate in the special military operation in Ukraine. South Korean government officials have also reportedly said that Seoul is considering providing Ukraine with lethal weapons as part of its response.
The South China Morning Post indicates that the weapons South Korea could send to Kiev are the Cheongung-II anti-aircraft missile system, K9 self-propelled howitzers, K2 tanks and Chunmoo multiple rocket launchers. However, even the South Korean opposition warns the current government not to make decisions based on unconfirmed intelligence data.
Opposition lawmakers Kim Joon-hyung and Lee Jae-gang made a joint statement, cited by the newspaper, in which they warned that Seoul is “playing with fire” by relying on unverified information. They also believe that any retaliatory action by South Korea against its northern neighbour would be a grave mistake.
According to them, South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol is using this issue to “distract the public from a growing political scandal involving his wife.”
Lee Jun-han, a political scientist at Incheon National University, points out that South Korea’s conservative government has a “history of exaggerating threats from the North to boost public support.”
“But the risks are too high for the country to play such a game now,” he added.
Another expert, Yang Moo-jin, the director of the University of North Korean Studies, also opines that Seoul’s abrupt reaction to information not confirmed by the United States and NATO is linked to “the need to address domestic concerns.”
Earlier, the Russian embassy in Seoul stated that cooperation between Russia and North Korea is carried out within the framework of international law and is not directed against South Korea’s security interests. Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov, commenting on the alleged deployment of North Korean troops to the combat zone in Ukraine, drew attention to the contradiction in information on this issue when “South Korea says one thing, then the Pentagon says they have no confirmation of such statements.”
The White House and NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said they had no evidence to support allegations of Pyongyang’s involvement in the Ukraine conflict. Nonetheless, US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin told reporters in Rome on September 23 that “There is evidence of DPRK troops in Russia,” using the abbreviation for North Korea’s formal name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.
“What exactly they’re doing is left to be seen,” Austin said, adding, “We’re trying to gain better fidelity on it.” It’s a “serious issue,” he said, if North Korea’s “intention is to participate in this war on Russia’s behalf.”
On September 22, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that two units of North Korean troops, with as many as 6,000 people each, were being trained for deployment.
“This is a challenge, but we know how to respond to this challenge. It is important that partners do not hide from this challenge as well,” he said.
Lt. Gen. Kyrylo Budanov, the head of Ukraine’s Main Directorate of Intelligence, told The War Zone that North Korean troops could arrive in Russia’s Kursk region, where Ukrainian forces launched an invasion in August.
In effect, if the reports of the North Korean troops in Russia are true and they are utilised in Kursk, there can be no international condemnation since Moscow has every right by international law to cooperate with allies so Ukrainian invaders can be expelled from Russian sovereign territory that is internationally recognised as such.
There is little indication that North Korean troops will be deployed in Ukraine, rendering South Korea and Ukraine’s allegations as nothing more than fear-mongering in the vain attempt to bring more foreign troops to Ukraine, distract from domestic issues in South Korea, and strengthen Western sanctions imposed on North Korea.
For this reason, there is even scepticism in Ukraine about the authenticity of Seoul’s and the Kiev regime’s claims, with Andriy Kovalenko, the head of Ukraine’s Center for Countering Disinformation, stating:
“There are no North Korean soldiers, yet.”
It is, therefore, more than obvious that the fake claims by Seoul and the Kiev regime are for alternative reasons, the most prominent being that the South Korean president’s approval rating has dropped to 24.1%, the lowest level since he took office in 2022. Creating fake fear over Pyongyang is his longtime tactic to distract citizens from internal issues, and it appears that his propaganda that North Korean soldiers will fight in Ukraine is a part of this same agenda.
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This article was originally published on InfoBrics.
Ahmed Adel is a Cairo-based geopolitics and political economy researcher. He is a regular contributor to Global Research.
Featured image: South Korean Ambassador to Ukraine and President of Ukraine in Kyiv, Ukraine on 2021 (From the Public Domain)
