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President Yoon Suk-yeol of South Korea shakes hands with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy ahead of their summit in Kyiv in July 2023. (courtesy of the presidential office)

A special delegation from Ukraine led by Defense Minister Rustem Umerov met with South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol, national security adviser Shin Won-sik and Defense Minister Kim Yong-hyun on Wednesday. While numerous reports claim that Ukraine requested weapons aid at the meeting, Korea’s presidential office and Ministry of National Defense have not disclosed the details of the meeting’s agenda.

Ukraine has been asking South Korea to help it by providing weapons, while characterizing North Korea’s deployment of troops to Russia as a joint security threat for South Korea and Ukraine.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy wrote on social media on Oct. 31 that a Ukrainian delegation would soon be visiting South Korea to talk about coordination on defense efforts (read: weapons). He added that the Ukrainians were thinking of requesting artillery and air defense systems.

Why does Ukraine, which is no ally to South Korea, feel so entitled to demand weapons support from South Korea?
 
Here in Korea, those who say we should provide weapons to Ukraine like to argue that South Korea was able to survive the Korean War with the help of the free world, and that if Korea steps up to lend Ukraine a hand in its time of need, the free world will come to South Korea’s aid once more if ever another conflict erupts on the Korean Peninsula.
 
The truth is that, as a member of the Soviet Union during the Cold War, Ukraine did not fight off communist aggression during the Korean War. In fact, it was fighting on their side. Even before the war broke out in Ukraine, domestic travel websites showed photos demonstrating Ukraine’s participation in the Korean War on display at the National Museum of the History of Ukraine in the Second World War.

A commendation issued by the Standing Committee of North Korea’s Supreme People’s Assembly to Ukrainian soldiers who fought on the side of North Korea on behalf of the USSR during the Korean War on display at the National Museum of the History of Ukraine in the Second World War in Kyiv. (courtesy of the Kookbang Ilbo)

 
During the Korean War, Ukrainian pilots, as part of the Soviet air force, flew MiG jets while engaging in dogfights with US fighter jets. Kyiv’s war museum displays photos of MiG pilots who served in the Soviet army, a certificate from the North Korean government commending Ukrainian pilots, and photos of North Korean citizens with the North Korean flag.
 
Among the artifacts exhibited is the “40 Years of Liberation of Korea” medal awarded to Ukrainian-born Soviet Air Force officer Sergey Kramarenko on Aug. 10, 1985, by Kim Il-sung, then-leader of North Korea.
 
It has also been alleged that North Korea got its hands on its intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) technology thanks to leaks from a Ukrainian arms factory following Ukraine’s independence in 1991, after the collapse of the Soviet Union. The New York Times reported as much on Aug. 14, 2017, citing reports from the International Institute for Strategic Studies and US intelligence agencies.
 
According to the article, North Korea procured rocket engines (RD-250 series) produced at a Ukrainian military factory in Dnipro on the black market, modified them, and installed them on the Hwasong-12 and Hwasong-14 intermediate-range missiles launched respectively in May and July 2017.
 
While Ukraine has criticized Russia’s war of aggression and requested weapons assistance from South Korea, it has shown a deeply ignorant attitude toward Japan’s history of colonization and aggression against South Korea.
 
On Sept. 3, the Embassy of Ukraine in Japan posted to its social media account a photo of Ambassador Sergiy Korsunsky, the Ukrainian envoy to Japan, visiting the Yasukuni Shrine, writing that he “paid his respects to those who lost their lives in service of their country.” Due to the controversy that followed, with many accusing those who visit Yasukuni Shrine of endorsing Japan’s war crimes, the post was promptly deleted by the embassy.

On Sept. 3, 2024, Sergiy Korsunsky, the Ukrainian ambassador to Japan, posted this photo of him paying respects at Yasukuni Shrine, where Class A war criminals are entombed, before deleting it. (@UKRinJPN on X)

 
Unlike Ukraine, which has never contributed to South Korea’s national security, Russia helped South Korea build guided weapons such as Shingung (KP-SAM), a portable surface-to-air missile, and Cheongung (KM-SAM), a medium-range surface-to-air missile in the 1990s.
 
Following the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, the livelihood of Russia’s R&D workers developing high-tech weapons was severely threatened — they had reportedly been receiving a monthly wage of around US$100 a month, but had been deprived of their paychecks for years.
 
At the time, Russia’s desperation for money and South Korea’s need for advanced military technology aligned, leading to South Korea-Russian military-technical cooperation in the development of the Cheongung and Shingung missiles, especially in the development of the Cheongung’s “cold launch” system.
 
A cold launch refers to a technique in which a missile is propelled into the air by using compressed gas or steam and ignites afterward. This technique is necessary for submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM) launches.

The KM-SAM, or “Cheongung,” missile system is a surface-to-air missile created to defend major state and industrial facilities from aerial attacks. (courtesy of the Agency for Defense Development)

The KP-SAM, “Chiron,” is a portable surface-to-air missile for shooting down enemy planes and helicopters. (courtesy of LIG Nex1)

Interestingly enough, the air defense weapons Ukraine wishes to obtain are the very missiles Russia helped Korea make. As the missiles contain original Russian technology and were developed through cooperation between South Korea and Russia, Russia would respond strongly if South Korea served up those weapons on a platter to Ukraine.
 
Ukraine’s arrogance, which has prompted it to act like a loan shark shaking Seoul down when South Korea owes it nothing in terms of security, stems from the folly of the Yoon Suk-yeol administration.
 
Ukraine has categorized North Korea’s deployment of troops to Russia as a threat to the national security of both Ukraine and South Korea, but the security threats faced by the two countries are inherently different. While the deployment of North Korean troops to Russia is a more direct military threat to Ukraine, from South Korea’s perspective, the real threat is the strengthening of the bond between North Korea and Russia that will happen as a result of North Korea’s aid to Russia.

More specifically, it’s on Korea to prevent Russia from intervening if war breaks out on the Korean Peninsula, and to prevent Russia from handing over cutting-edge weapons and military technology to North Korea. While North Korea helping Russia is a problem in the eyes of Ukraine, from South Korea’s perspective the real problem is Russia helping North Korea. 

Seoul would be wise to focus its diplomatic efforts on carefully monitoring the situation with North Korean troops in Russia and tracking what Moscow hands Pyongyang in return for their service. But last month, South Korea’s spy agency widely broadcast its assessment that North Korean troops had been sent to Russia, and the presidential office was swift to comment that it would be examining the possibility of sending weapons support to Ukraine. This is because the Yoon administration has fundamentally misunderstood the issue of North Korean troops being sent to Russia as being about North Korea helping Russia. 

Without missing a beat, Ukraine took the chance to characterize the development as a common threat to both South Korea and Ukraine and began badgering South Korea for weapons support. 

A former diplomat who has served as Korea’s ambassador to a key country said that sending weapons to Ukraine would be a “total fiasco that throws away Korea’s leverage on Russia to put the brakes on chummy ties between Russia and North Korea.”

“If South Korea sends weapons to Ukraine, Russia will no longer care about or pay attention to Seoul and can accelerate its military cooperation with North Korea,” the former diplomat said. “Giving Ukraine weapons won’t curb or stop Moscow and Pyongyang from getting any closer, and it’s clear it would end up undoing the last fail-safe preventing military cooperation between the two.”

By Kwon Hyuk-chul, staff reporter

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