Russia will respond “in every way that we find necessary” if South Korea sends arms to Ukraine, a top Kremlin official said Sunday, warning that relations between Seoul and Moscow would be completely destroyed by such a step.
The sharp comments from Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Andrey Rudenko come as Seoul weighs its response to the deployment of thousands of North Korean troops to the front lines of the Russia–Ukraine war.
Those North Korean detachments are directly engaged in fierce fighting with the Ukrainian military, and those clashes represent a major escalation of the conflict with the introduction of a third country into the hostilities.
South Korea has condemned North Korea’s involvement in the Russia–Ukraine war. In response, officials in Seoul have said they are considering changing the country’s longstanding policy against providing arms directly to Ukraine.
But Russian officials warned against that step.
“Seoul must realize that the possible use of South Korean weapons to kill Russian citizens will fully destroy relations between our countries. Of course, we will respond in every way that we find necessary. It is unlikely that this will strengthen the security of the Republic of Korea itself,” Mr. Rudenko told Russia’s state-run TASS news agency.
“I hope that the administration of the Republic of Korea will be guided primarily by long-term national interests, and not by short-term opportunistic considerations prompted from outside,” he said.
The comments underscore growing concerns in national security circles that the Russia–Ukraine war is escalating and in a worst-case scenario could soon drag more countries into the fighting.
Russian forces last week fired an “intermediate-range ballistic missile” at Ukraine. Russian President Vladimir Putin made clear the launch was a warning to Ukraine and its Western supporters, including the U.S., which reportedly has loosened restrictions on the use of American weapons by Ukrainian forces to hit targets deep inside Russia.
South Korean officials, meanwhile, are closely monitoring the rapidly expanding Russia-North Korean military partnership. A top South Korean official said the country believes North Korean leader Kim Jong-un could soon visit Russia, a meeting that surely would focus heavily on the two countries’ joint military efforts against Ukraine.
“It could be a reciprocal visit for Russian President Vladimir Putin’s trip to North Korea in June, or it could be a visit for Putin to thank the North on its troop deployment,” South Korean National Security Adviser Shin Won-sik told the country’s Yonhap News Agency on Sunday.