‘Big Mistake’: Putin warns South Korea against sending deadly weapons to Ukraine

Days after signing a historic treaty with North Korea, Russian President Vladimir Putin warned South Korea that sending lethal weapons to Ukraine would be a “big mistake”. The proclamation from the Russian leader came after Seoul announced that it would consider arming Ukraine in the ongoing war.

“If South Korea supplies weapons to Ukraine, it will not be the answer. I hope they won’t do it, it would be a big mistake,” Putin said at a press conference in Vietnam, POLITICO reported. Hanoi was the final destination in his two-nation trip to Asia, the first stop being Pyongyang, North Korea.

The Russian leader used his trip to North Korea to shore up ties with the hermit nation. In return for the gesture, the North Korean Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un pledged to support Russia in its fight against Ukraine.

Russia and South Korea butt heads

After Putin called the United States and South Korea two pariah states that are “defensive in nature,” South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol gave out a stern response.

“It’s absurd that two parties with a history of launching wars of invasion — the Korean War and the war in Ukraine — are now vowing mutual military cooperation on the premise of a preemptive attack by the international community that will never happen,” the South Korean presidential office said in a statement.

At the United Nations in New York, South Korean Foreign Minister Cho Tae-Yul went on to state that it is “deplorable” that Russia would act in violation of multiple UN sanctions resolutions against North Korea that Moscow voted for. On Friday, it was reported that South Korea summoned a Russian ambassador to protest a defence pact with North Korea.

South Korean Vice Foreign Minister Kim Hong Kyun summoned Russian Ambassador Georgy Zinoviev to protest the deal between Putin and Kim Jong Un.

Tensions in the Korean peninsula escalated after South Korea’s military observed that the North deployed large numbers of soldiers in frontline areas to build suspected anti-tank barriers, reinforce roads and plant mines in an apparent attempt to fortify their side of the border.

With inputs from agencies.