US says to buy South Korean ammo for Ukraine; Seoul insists on war neutrality

A U.S. soldier prepares to fire a 155-mm howitzer round toward insurgent positions in Afghanistan's Kunar province in 2012.(Photo by Reuters)

The United States is mulling the purchase of artillery shells from South Korea to supply them to Ukraine, a US official says, even though Seoul insists that its policy of not sending military aid to Ukraine remains unchanged.

Citing some US officials who are familiar with the agreement, the Wall Street Journal said the agreement includes the purchase of 100,000 rounds of 155mm cannonballs that are meant to be delivered to Ukraine.

Reuters news agency cited a US official confirming on Friday that Washington intends to send the South Korean artillery shells to Ukraine.

The official said the funds from the Ukrainian Security Assistance Initiative (USAI) could be used to buy the ammunition, but it was not yet clear how the ammunition would be dispatched to Ukraine.

South Korea's defense ministry announced in a statement that the country's position on not sending lethal military aid to Ukraine has not changed and its “confidential” negotiations on the sale of the artillery shells were being conducted “under the premise that the US is the end user”.

“In order to make up for the shortage of 155mm ammunition inventories in the US, negotiations are ongoing between the US and Korean companies to export ammunition,” the ministry said in a statement.

The US official, however, warned that news about negotiations on the arms deal could be a threat to reaching an agreement.

South Korea, which is a close ally of Washington, has tried very hard to avoid enmity with Moscow for economic reasons and also because Russia can play an important role in North Korea's rivalry with South Korea.

South Korea’s Yonhap News Agency on Friday reported that the country’s defense minister Lee Jong-sup and US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin had in talks earlier this month “agreed ‘in principle’ to proceed with the artillery deal”.

“But the allies are having related talks under the premise that the materials will be used by the US,” Yonhap reported, citing a statement from the country’s defense ministry.

It further said that the South Korean government had not altered its commitment to refrain from supplying Ukraine with lethal weapons.

Ukraine's embattled president Volodymyr Zelensky had previously asked South Korea for "necessary" weapons, to which Russians took strong umbrage.

After Russian President Vladimir Putin last month said that Seoul's actions could damage their bilateral relations, South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol said the country has not yet provided Ukraine with any lethal weapons.

US National Security Spokesman John Kirby claimed last week that Washington has information showing that North Korea has secretly provided Russia with a "significant" number of artillery shells for use in Ukraine.

The US and its allies have provided a large cache of military equipment to Ukraine in recent months despite Russia's warning that it would prolong the war.

Russia launched a military operation in Ukraine in late February, following Kiev’s failure to implement the terms of the Minsk agreements and Moscow’s recognition of the breakaway regions of Donetsk and Luhansk.

At the time, Russian President Vladimir Putin said one of the goals of what he called a “special military operation” was to “de-Nazify” Ukraine.


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