President Vladimir Putin said Russia could supply weapons to North Korea in what he suggested would be a mirror response to Western arming of Ukraine.
Putin spoke to reporters in Vietnam on Thursday, a day after visiting nuclear-armed North Korea and signing a mutual defense agreement with its leader, Kim Jong Un.
Western countries have rejected North Korea over its development of nuclear and ballistic missiles in defiance of United Nations sanctions, and view growing ties between Moscow and Pyongyang with concern.
Putin threatened earlier this month that Russia could supply weapons 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 of those recipients of Russian weapons.
“I said, also in Pyongyang, that we reserve the right to supply weapons to other regions of the world. Taking into account our agreements with [North Korea]”I don't exclude it 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 of them.
Putin said Moscow hoped 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.
“As for the possibility of somehow using each other's capabilities in the conflict in Ukraine, we did not ask anyone, no one has offered it to us, therefore it is not necessary,” 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 weapons to Ukraine, and that Moscow would respond to such a move in a way that would be painful for Seoul.
The comments came after South Korea's Yonhap news agency said Seoul would review the possibility of supplying weapons to Ukraine in light of the mutual defense pact signed by Putin and Kim a day earlier.
“In relation to sending lethal weapons to combat zones in Ukraine, this would be a very big mistake. I hope this does not happen,” Putin said. “If so, then we will make a corresponding decision that probably will not please the current South Korean leadership.”
South Korea has seen significant growth in international military sales in recent years. But it has a long-standing policy of banning arms sales in active conflict zones, which it has maintained despite calls from the United States and Ukraine to reconsider.
There is an ongoing debate about how strong a security commitment the Russia-North Korea deal entails. While some analysts see the deal as a full restoration of the Cold War-era alliance between the countries, others say the agreement appears more symbolic than substantial.
Ankit Panda, senior analyst at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said the text appeared to be carefully worded so as not to imply knee-jerk military fabrication.
But “the big picture here is that both sides are willing to put in writing and show the world how broadly they intend to expand the scope of their cooperation,” he said.
Speaking to reporters in Hanoi, Putin also expanded on comments he made earlier this month about nuclear weapons, saying Moscow was thinking about possible changes to its doctrine on their use.
Putin said this was due to changing views on nuclear use among Russia's adversaries.
Russia's existing doctrine states that it can use nuclear weapons in response to a nuclear attack or in the case of a conventional attack that poses an existential threat to the state.
Since the start of the war in Ukraine, some hawks among Russian military analysts have been arguing that Moscow should consider revising that stance and even launching some kind of nuclear strike that could “sober up” its adversaries in the West.
Putin told reporters that Russia was thinking about changing its doctrine because its potential enemies were working on “new elements” related to lowering the threshold for nuclear use.
“In particular, extremely low-yield nuclear explosive devices are being developed. And we know that ideas are circulating in Western expert circles that such means of destruction could be used,” he stated.
Putin said there was “nothing particularly terrible” about this, but that Russia needed to pay attention to it.
Since launching his full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, something he presents as a special military operation to ensure Russia's own security, Putin has frequently spoken about the size and power of Russia's nuclear arsenal and warned to the West that runs the risk of a global conflict. if he goes deeper into the war.
