PRESIDENT Vladimir Putin said that Russia might supply weapons to North Korea in what he suggested would be a mirror response to the Western arming of Ukraine.
Putin was speaking to reporters in Vietnam on Thursday, a day after visiting nuclear-armed North Korea and signing a mutual defence agreement with its leader, Kim Jong Un.
Western countries have shunned North Korea because of its development of nuclear and ballistic missiles in defiance of United Nations sanctions, and view the growing ties between Moscow and Pyongyang with concern.
Putin threatened earlier this month that Russia might supply arms to Western adversaries because the West was providing high-precision weapons to Ukraine and giving it permission to fire them at targets inside Russia.
In his latest comments, he said North Korea could be one such recipient of Russian arms.
“I said, including in Pyongyang, that we then reserve the right to supply weapons to other regions of the world. Taking into account our agreements with [North Korea], I do not exclude this either,” he said.
The treaty signed by Putin and Kim on Wednesday commits each side to provide immediate military assistance to the other in the event of armed aggression against either one of them.
Putin said Moscow expected that its cooperation with North Korea would serve as a deterrent to the West, but that there was no need to use North Korean soldiers for the war in Ukraine.
“Regarding the possibility of somehow using each other’s capabilities in the conflict in Ukraine, we are not asking anyone for this, no one has offered us this, therefore there is no need,” he said.
The United States and Ukraine say North Korea has already provided Russia with significant quantities of artillery shells and ballistic missiles, which Moscow and Pyongyang have denied.
Putin said South Korea would be making “a big mistake” if it decided to supply arms to Ukraine, and that Moscow would respond to such a move in a way that would be painful for Seoul.
The remarks came after South Korean news agency Yonhap said Seoul would review the possibility of supplying weapons to Ukraine in light of the mutual defence pact signed by Putin and Kim a day earlier.
“In connections to sending lethal weapons to combat zones in Ukraine, this would be a very big mistake. I hope this will not happen,” Putin said. “If it will, then we will take the according decision that the current South Korean leadership will probably not like.”