Seoul 'won't sit idle' over N Korea troops to Russia

SEOUL

South Korea "won't sit idle" over the North's deployment of thousands of troops to help Russia fight Ukraine, President Yoon Suk Yeol said on Thursday, slamming it as a "provocation."

Seoul's spy agency has said that around 3,000 North Korean soldiers are currently in Russia training, likely to deploy to the frontlines against Ukraine soon, with thousands more troops to be sent by December.

NATO and Washington have confirmed that Pyongyang's soldiers are now training in Russia, warning that if they were to join the fight against Kiev, it could mark a dangerous escalation of the grinding war.

"South Korea won't sit idle over this," Yoon said after talks with visiting Polish President Andrzej Duda, adding that the two countries agreed North Korea's deployment was "a provocation that threatens global security beyond the Korean Peninsula and Europe."

Poland's Duda spoke to Yoon yesterday, after which the two leaders "strongly condemned North Korea's nuclear and missile development and provocations, as well as its illegal military cooperation with Russia."

South Korea, one of the world's top 10 weapons exporters, has long resisted calls from its allies including Washington to supply Kiev with weapons, pointing to long-standing domestic policy which bars Seoul from selling weapons to actors engaged in active conflicts.

It has recently hinted that it could look at reviewing this policy in light of North Korea's actions, and Yoon said yesterday that Seoul would "take necessary actions in cooperation with the international community" to respond.

Seoul has also sold billions of dollars of tanks, howitzers, attack aircraft and rocket launchers to Poland, Kiev's key ally.