South Korean Defense Minister Kim Yong-hyun said sending a group of observers or analysts to Ukraine is an obvious task of the South Korean military, which needs to study the trends of modern warfare.
He said this after a meeting with Pentagon chief Lloyd Austin in Washington, Ukrinform reports, referring to Yonhap.
“Throughout the history in many different wars, including the Iraq war, there have been many cases where we have sent monitoring teams or lesson-learned analysis teams to the countries that were in war,” Kim said during a press briefing following his talks with U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin.
According to the defense minister, such observers analyze the trends of modern warfare and its various aspects.
This is of particular importance now that the dispatch of North Korean troops to Russia has been confirmed, because it will allow South Korean analysts to learn about the maneuvers and tactics of North Korean troops. Therefore, if such a team is not sent to Ukraine, it would constitute a “dereliction of duty”, Kim believes.
Later, during a separate meeting with Korean journalists, Kim emphasized that the effort will involve analysts and that Seoul was not eyeing sending troops to support Ukraine in response to Pyongyang deploying its forces to help Russia in its war.
“The dispatch of a monitoring team or analysis team is something that is definitely necessary for our military or the government (to consider) in preparation of a certain emergency that could crop up in the future,” he said.
He also suggested that, in exchange for large-scale military aid to North Korea, Russia could transfer advanced weapons technology to Pyongyang to develop missiles, reconnaissance satellites, and nuclear submarines.
“If Russia provides military science and technology support to the North, that could raise threats further, but it is not appropriate to overestimate it,” he said during the meeting with Korean reporters.
According to him, in a situation of rapid deepening of military cooperation between the DPRK and Russia, the South Korean government will provide assistance to Ukraine in phases, within its capabilities.
“What I meant by ‘in phases’ is that we will take into account how the war (in Ukraine) is faring and our solidarity with the international community,” he said.
As Ukrinform reported earlier, U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said the North Korean troops were deployed in Russia’s Kursk region close to the border with Ukraine, wearing Russian uniforms and provided with Russian equipment.
Source: South Korea’s MoD says dispatching analysts to Ukraine “obvious” task
