Ukraine's defence minister to visit South Korea to ask for arms assistance– media

A Ukrainian delegation headed by Ukraineʼs Defence Minister Rustem Umierov will visit South Korea on Wednesday to ask for aid for Ukraine in providing the necessary weapons.

Source: news outlet South China Morning Post, citing an unnamed source

Details: The source reports that the Ukrainian delegation is intending to present a list of necessary weapons, which includes anti-aircraft missiles and artillery pieces.

Analysts expect Seoul to take a cautious stance on the request after Donald Trump's election victory and Moscow's repeat warnings against such actions.

A spokesman for the South Korean Defence Ministry declined to comment.

"The government is expected to adopt a wait-and-see approach, monitoring Russia’s military cooperation with North Korea before deciding its next steps," said Doo Jin-ho, a research fellow at the Korea Institute for Defence Analyses.

For reference:

• Earlier, Bloomberg wrote that Donald Trump's victory in the US election was forcing South Korea to reconsider sending weapons directly to Ukraine, but there is no decision yet.
• In early November, Trump held a telephone conversation with his South Korean counterpart, Yoon Suk-yeol, during which, among other things, they raised the issue of the deployment of North Korean troops to Russia to assist in the war against Ukraine.
• It is also known that South Korea's leadership is considering sending a group of observers to Ukraine in response to the deployment of North Korean troops to Russia.

Background: 

• On 7 November, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that there had already been losses among the North Korean troops fighting on the side of Russia in Kursk Oblast.
• A record number of North Korean citizens arrived in Russia in the third quarter of 2024, citing "training" as their reason for travel amid reports of North Korean troops being deployed to participate in the war against Ukraine.
• The US Department of State said that Russia's success on the battlefield using the North Korean military will depend on the level of their integration into the Russian army.
• Last week, the United States confirmed that North Korean troops had recently participated in hostilities in Kursk Oblast for the first time.
• In addition, according to The New York Times, 50,000 Russian and North Korean troops are preparing to launch a large-scale counteroffensive in Kursk Oblast.

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