On July 8, 2024, ahead of his visit to the US, South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol gave an interview to Reuters, which caused some tension in the Russian expert community. Mr. Yoon said that the future of relations between the Republic of Korea and the Russian Federation will depend entirely on Moscow’s actions in relation to military cooperation with North Korea.

The South Korean leader also said that Seoul’s decision on arms deliveries to Ukraine will depend on how the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership Treaty recently signed by Pyongyang and Moscow is implemented.

Such statements from the South Korean president provoked an immediate reaction from Moscow, although it was not President Vladimir Putin himself who responded, but his press secretary Dmitry Peskov. As he put it, “we are in favor of building good relations with all states in the region—both with the DPRK and South Korea,” but now “we have a partner in Pyongyang and another country, South Korea, that has joined the anti-Russian sanctions… But how can we build good relations [with countries] that take a hostile stance toward us?”

All this has raised suspicions that the South Korean leadership may still cross Moscow’s red line in response to pressure from the West. Representatives of the US and NATO have been seeking to influence Seoul for a long time, and their arguments can be divided into the following groups:

South Korea positions itself as a responsible global power and a staunch ally of the US. This position needs to be backed up by responsible action.

North Korea has already helped Russia and is doing so in violation of the UN Security Council sanctions, and South Korea has the right to do the same, especially since, if desired, a concrete justifications for doing so is available in the form of the conditions Yoon Suk-yeol put forward in the spring of 2023.

South Korea is an active exporter of arms, including to such countries as Romania and Poland. If South Korean military hardware were to be used successfully against Russian hardware this might have an effect on its sales.

Seoul’s plans to provide Kiev with a medium- to long-term aid package

On April 5, 2024, participating in a meeting of NATO foreign ministers in Brussels, South Korean Foreign Minister Cho Tae-yeol pledged to........

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