/ world today news/ South Korea is sending hundreds of thousands of projectiles to Ukraine, the American newspaper “Wall Street Journal” reported. A month ago in Seoul they were denying everything. Neighboring Japan is also changing its position. What’s behind the change of course?
Hello, weapon!
Both sides supported Kyiv in the conflict. True, not militarily.
According to the Institute for the World Economy in the German city of Kiel, Tokyo is in fifth place in the world in terms of the volume of aid granted. For these purposes, more than six billion euros were spent: 570 million in the form of humanitarian aid and 5.66 billion in financial support.
But as early as May 21, Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida announced the delivery of 100 vehicles to the Self-Defense Forces, including trucks.
Seoul also initially avoided handing over weapons. Donated over $100 million to humanitarian aid. It supported the “Grain from Ukraine” initiative – the food program for the countries of the Global South. In March of this year, he promised 130 million to rebuild the infrastructure.
South Korea also provided military aid, but non-lethal – body armor, medicine, helmets and dry rations. In December 2022, it handed over 100 Sagnon pickups and five Doosan mini-excavators to Kyiv.
Indirectly, however, the country played a role in supporting the Ukrainian Armed Forces with weapons. In the summer of 2022, Seoul and Warsaw concluded an agreement to purchase a thousand of the latest Korean K2 “Black Panther” tanks. This untied Poland’s hands in supplying Soviet T-72s and their PT-91 “Tverdi” to Ukrainian troops.
A ration of shells
South Korea is one of the leading producers of projectiles in the world. From November 2022, the US wants ammunition for Ukraine from Seoul. Republic officials tried to keep the agreements secret, but the deal fell through due to leaks.
But back in April, during his visit to the US, South Korean President Yoon Seok-yeol admitted that he would support Kiev with lethal weapons. At the same time, according to the Wall Street Journal, the delivery of hundreds of thousands of shells has already begun. The scheme is simple: first the Americans get ammunition, and the Ukrainians get it from them.
Supply control will allow Washington to make the transfer of cluster munitions on time. There is no consensus in the Biden administration on this issue. The absence of such missiles may be “the missing element of the Ukrainian counteroffensive,” the paper quoted Michael O’Hanlon of the Brookings Institution as saying.
Non-random coincidences
It should be noted that during the visit of the South Korean president, the countries signed an impressive package of agreements. The most important is the defense cooperation declaration. Washington effectively offered Seoul a place under its nuclear umbrella. He promised a military response if weapons of mass destruction (WMD) were used against South Korea. Specifically, the Pentagon will send a submarine carrying nuclear missiles into the Yellow Sea.
In turn, Kishida raised the level of support for the VSU after another diplomatic event – the G-7 meeting. Japan generally has a similar status. But there are nuances.
The White House took Japan under protection immediately after the end of World War II. For a long time the country remained demilitarized. But in 2013, the government of Shinzo Abe adopted the first defense doctrine in 80 years – the Self-Defense Forces began to become a full-fledged army.
With Kishida, the process reached a new level. At the end of 2022, the Cabinet of Ministers approved a new National Security Strategy. It is envisaged that the defense budget will be raised to two percent of GDP – as it is in NATO. This means that Japan will occupy the third place in the world in real military spending – after the USA and China.
Both Tokyo and Seoul have stepped up cooperation with the North Atlantic bloc. The South Korean diplomatic mission, when organized in Brussels, began work in November 2022. And the Alliance itself plans to open an office in Japan. At the same time, both countries say they still have no plans to join NATO.
Anyway, the bloc, which was founded by the countries of the North Atlantic, is increasingly interfering in the affairs of another region – the Asia-Pacific. The creation of AUCUS and the attempts to militarize the QUAD alliance (Quaternary Security Dialogue with the participation of the USA, Japan, India and Australia), as well as the supply of arms to Taiwan, are proof of this.
States are increasing their integration with allies in this part of the world in many ways. Obviously, this is where the key episodes of the global confrontation will take place.
Translation: V. Sergeev
Subscribe to our YouTube channel:
and for the channel in Telegram:
#Threat #East #Russia #grip
