Russian President Vladimir Putin threatened on Thursday to send weapons to North Korea if South Korea hands over weapons to Ukraine, as international tensions rise following a new treaty between Moscow and Pyongyang.
Speaking to reporters in Hanoi, Vietnam, after visiting North Korea and consolidating the treaty with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un that includes a mutual defense pact, Putin said South Korea has nothing to do with worry, as long as it doesn’t invade Pyongyang.
“As for supplying lethal weapons to the combat zone in Ukraine, that would be a big mistake,” he said. “I hope that doesn’t happen. If that happens, then we will also make appropriate decisions that are unlikely to please South Korea’s current leadership.”
South Korea on Thursday criticized the treaty between Russia and North Korea, which stipulates that the nations will defend each other in the event of an attack. The spokesman for Seoul’s presidential office warned that it was reviewing its policy on arms transfers to Ukraine, according to media reports.
South Korea has an export policy that consists only of providing non-lethal aid to other nations, but as an important US ally, it has supported Kiev with trucks and other equipment.
Putin’s meeting with Kim was a major blow to the US as both countries deepened an alliance that was formed last year when North Korea began supplying Russia with artillery bombs in exchange for food and critical technology. for its space and missile programs.
The Putin-Kim meeting took place not only in the midst of the war in Ukraine, but also at a time when tensions are simmering between North and South Korea, which have been in a frozen conflict since the end of the war in the 1990s. 1950.
A 2018 military agreement that saw North and South Korean forces withdraw certain equipment from the border has now been abandoned, with Seoul resuming its loudspeaker messaging campaign across the demilitarized border.
North Korea has sent garbage-filled balloons across the border in response to South Korean leaflet drops in its country, while Kim continues to launch spy satellites and test missiles, and the US and Seoul intensify military exercises on the Korean Peninsula.
This story originally appeared on thehill.com read the full story
