Could South Korea send its troops to fight for Ukraine?

The alleged deployment of North Korean soldiers to aid Russia's war effort in Ukraine has prompted South Korea to warn that it could send military monitors as well as weapons to Kyiv.

- ARPAN RAI

South Korean foreign minister Cho Tae Yul said earlier this week that all options were on the table, but experts noted that Seoul was more likely to send a variety of military support short of soldiers.

The alleged presence of around 12,000 North Korean troops in Russia, reportedly under a defence treaty that Russian president Vladimir Putin signed with Korean leader Kim Jong Un earlier this year, has set off alarm bells on the Korean peninsula. South Korea is concerned about thousands of North Korean troops gaining fighting experience in a war theatre, and potentially using the skills they acquire against South Korea on their return.

Kyiv has said that its forces have already clashed with the North Koreans in Kursk, a border region where the Russians have been fighting off a Ukrainian incursion since August. North Korea’s presence in Europe, if confirmed, would mark the isolated nation’s first participation in a major conflict since the end of the 1950-53 Korean war.