US dismisses Russia’s warning to South Korea about supplying arms to Ukraine

WASHINGTON — The United States has dismissed Russia’s warning that it will take every measure necessary if South Korea provides lethal weapons to Ukraine.

Patrick Ryder, press secretary for the Department of Defense, said Tuesday that “it's a little bit of gaslighting there,” when asked during a press briefing about Russia warning South Korea against providing weapons to Ukraine.

“Russia obviously invaded Ukraine,” Ryder said. “They could end this war today by withdrawing their troops from Ukrainian territory and restoring peace and stability to the region.”

Gaslighting refers to a situation where an aggressor tries to manipulate others into questioning their own judgment.

State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller made similar remarks on Monday during a press briefing, stressing that Russia is entirely responsible for the deployment of North Korean soldiers in Russia.

“It is Russia and Russia alone that is responsible for the very real security concerns that South Korea and the United States and Japan and any number of other countries have about the movement of DPRK troops to join the fight in Russia against Ukraine,” Miller said. DPRK is the short form of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, the official name of North Korea.

Russia’s warning

On Sunday, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Andrey Rudenko said in an interview with the country’s state news agency TASS that “Seoul must realize that the possible use of South Korean weapons to kill Russia citizens will fully destroy relations between our countries.”

Rudenko continued, saying, “We will respond in every way that we find necessary.”

In response, the South Korean government condemned the deepening military ties between Moscow and Pyongyang and said it would take “phased countermeasures" against the two countries’ cooperation.

“We will watch closely how Russia and North Korea develop their military cooperation, and we will continue to take a step-by-step approach based on that development,” said Koo Byung-sam, spokesperson for South Korea’s Unification Ministry in charge of inter-Korean affairs, leaving open the possibility of arms support for Ukraine.

U.S. experts say Russia is anxious to persuade South Korea not to support Ukraine.

Bruce Bennett, a senior defense analyst at the Rand Corporation, told VOA Korean Service on Tuesday by phone that Russia is trying to coerce South Korea with saber-rattling.

“Rudenko is claiming that [Russia] is going to give technologies to North Korea, but the Russians have been already doing it,” Bennett said. “He could be claiming that there’s going to be a war on the Korean Peninsula, but does Russia have any ground forces that can support such a thing? The Russians really don’t have extra military forces.”

Bruce Bechtol, a former intelligence officer at the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency and now a professor at Angelo University in Texas, said Russians are very wary of South Korean weapons coming into Ukraine, adding that it could help reverse Russia’s advancement in its war against Ukraine.

South Korean arms “are on par with the kind of arms that the United States makes,” Bechtol told VOA Korean Tuesday on the phone. “So, the stuff that they’re going to send the Ukrainians, whatever that may be, that’s going to help the Ukrainians in their fight against the Russians.”

North Korea’s involvement

South Korea has been mulling supplying weapons directly to Ukraine amid reports that North Korean soldiers are now engaged alongside Russian forces in battles against Ukrainian troops.

South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol suggested in a November 7 press conference that the government could provide weapons to Ukraine, depending on the degree that North Korean troops participate in the war between Russia and Ukraine.

"If the North Korean military gains experience in modern warfare, it can be a fatal problem for our national security," Yoon said. "We need to change the way we provide [to Ukraine] in stages depending on the degree of involvement of the North Korean military.

"We do not rule out weapons support," he said, adding that defensive rather than offensive weapons would be considered first.

Tensions on the Korean Peninsula have been escalating in recent years, as North Korea has been ceaselessly ramping up its nuclear and missile capabilities, making provocative threats against the neighboring South.

In the meantime, a Ukrainian delegation led by Defense Minister Rustem Umerov met Yoon at the presidential office in Seoul on Wednesday. Although details of the meeting were not disclosed, it is widely believed that the delegation from Ukraine has requested weapons.