Putin warns South Korea against arming Ukraine after new treaty

Russian President Vladimir Putin said it would be a very big mistake for Seoul to supply lethal weapons to Kyiv, South Korea’s Yonhap News Agency reported Friday. The day before, Russian state media reported that a South Korean presidential official said the government would reconsider providing weapons to Ukraine.

Earlier this week, Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un held meetings and signed an agreement that would obligate either country to defend the other if one of them faced aggression from another country. On Friday, Russian state media reported that South Korea had said it had various options for supplying weapons to Ukraine and that it all depended on how Russia approached the situation with North Korea.

South Korea has provided humanitarian aid and non-lethal military aid to Ukraine but has not yet provided weapons to Kyiv, according to both the Yonhap News Agency and Russian state media. South Korea has already this week imposed sanctions on hundreds of additional Russian products, according to Kremlin-run media. South Korea had already imposed sanctions on more than 1,000 Russian products.

What has the United States said about all this? U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Friday condemned the increased cooperation between Russia and North Korea. He added that ongoing weapons transfers between the two countries violate UN Security Council resolutions. Blinken also thanked South Korea for its continuing support for Ukraine.

On Thursday, U.S. Senators Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and Richard Blumenthal, D-N.Y., said they had introduced legislation to designate Russia as a state-sponsor of terrorism. The move would strengthen U.S. sanctions against Russia and would provide victims of Putin’s regime access to U.S. courts.

Dig deeper: Read William Inboden’s column in WORLD Opinions about Putin’s visit to Pyongyang.