South Korea lawmaker’s leaked messages on targeting North’s forces in Ukraine draw outrage

Leaked Telegram messages between South Korea’s top security official and a conservative lawmaker have sparked controversy over suggestions that Seoul collaborate with Ukraine in a targeted hit on North Korean forces fighting alongside Russia. The incident followed President Yoon Suk-yeol’s statement on Thursday, indicating that South Korea might consider providing arms to Ukraine if military cooperation between Moscow and the North deepened. Yoon vowed not to “sit idle” in response to Pyongyang’s troops potentially being deployed to Russia. “We have adhered to a principle of not directly supplying lethal weapons, but we can review this more flexibly depending on North Korean military activities,” he warned. Lawmaker Han Ki-ho, a former three-star general and a senior member of the ruling People Power Party, suggested that South Korea could help Ukrainian forces specifically target North Koreans with artillery and missile strikes. “If we can cooperate with Ukraine, we’d like to bomb North Korean military units to cause damage and use that damage for psychological warfare against North Korea,” Han stated in the leaked messages. In response, National Security Adviser Shin Won-sik replied: “Yes. I’ll take care of it.” Han then suggested that instead of sending troops, South Korea could dispatch liaison officers to assist Ukraine, to which Shin responded: “That’s how it will be.” The texts, captured by a photographer during a parliamentary session, made headlines on Thursday and quickly ignited a political firestorm. Opposition lawmakers condemned the exchange, accusing the ruling party of recklessly endangering the Korean peninsula and attempting to divert attention from President Yoon’s growing political challenges. Yoon’s approval rating plummeted to 20 per cent on Friday, reaching one of the lowest points for any South Korean president, according to a Korea Gallup poll. “This is a crazy idea, treating people like pawns on a chessboard,” said Park Chan-dae, the floor leader of the opposition Democratic Party of Korea. “It doesn’t matter whether they would be liaison officers or observers. They are all soldiers, and their dispatch to Ukraine would amount to participating in the war,” Park added. He warned of the potential for the two Koreas to become embroiled in a “war of proxies” in a foreign country. Opposition lawmakers quickly called on Yoon to discipline Shin, while urging his party to distance itself from lawmaker Han. In defence, Han argued that he had merely shared a “personal view”, stressing that it would be a psychological tactic to raise awareness among North Koreans that their soldiers were being sacrificed in a foreign war. He insisted that it would not be controversial for Ukraine to target North Koreans instead. Defence Minister Kim Yong-hyun sought to calm the growing outrage, explaining that the Telegram messages were exchanged “privately” between Han and Shin and they “divert greatly from the government’s policy stance”. He portrayed the North Korean troops sent to Russia as “cannon fodder mercenaries” during a parallel parliamentary audit session. In an exclusive interview with This Week in Asia, lawmaker Kim Joon-hyung of the splinter opposition Rebuilding Korea Party claimed that Han’s views were shared by “some jingoistic hawks” within the ruling camp. “There is a legal loophole preventing the opposition-controlled parliament from stopping the government if it decides to break with the principle of not supplying lethal weapons to a country at war,” Kim said. “Still, it would take months for such a scenario to materialise. It’s anyone’s guess what could happen in the war or the upcoming US presidential election in November.” Meanwhile, Russian President Vladimir Putin downplayed concerns about military cooperation with Pyongyang, stating: “This is our business,” when questioned about North Korean troop deployments to Ukraine during the Brics summit in Kazan. On Thursday, Russian lawmakers also voted unanimously to ratify the country’s defence treaty with North Korea, sparking condemnation from the South. Seoul “expresses grave concern over Russia’s ratification of the Russia-North Korea treaty amidst the ongoing deployment of North Korean troops to Russia,” the foreign ministry said in a statement on Friday. Both Washington and Seoul confirmed that North Korea sent around 3,000 troops to eastern Russia by ship earlier this month, raising tensions on the Korean peninsula. The two Koreas have escalated their long-standing psychological warfare tactics, exchanging propaganda leaflets, garbage-filled balloons and loudspeaker broadcasts near the border. Chang Yong-seok, senior researcher at Seoul National University’s Institute for Peace and Unification, cautioned South Korea against making hasty decisions that could provoke Russia. He warned that Moscow, in return, could provide North Korea with advanced conventional weapons such as anti-aircraft missiles, jet fighters and submarines. “It would be very dangerous and irresponsible for the South Korean government to talk about participating in the war by dispatching liaison officers or military observers,” Chang told This Week in Asia.

South Korea lawmaker’s leaked messages on targeting North’s forces in Ukraine draw outrage

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Messages captured by photographer show top security official and lawmaker seemingly agreeing on warfare tactic

Messages captured by photographer show top security official and lawmaker seemingly agreeing on warfare tactic