| Submit your comments on this article |
| China-Japan-Koreas |
| 'Every Tank Counts.' Will Korean Weapons Appear on the Ukrainian Front? |
| 2024-06-28 |
| Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited by Artemy Sharapov [REGNUM] Vladimir Putin's recent visit to the DPRK and the signing of a cooperation agreement between the two countries have greatly alarmed the South Korean authorities. The response was swift: if Moscow transfers modern weapons and technology to Pyongyang, Seoul will lift the current restrictions and begin deliveries to Kiev. This was stated by the head of the National Security Department of the Presidential Administration of South Korea, Chang Ho-jin, on the air of the KBS television channel. The agreement signed by Putin and Kim Jong-un provides for military assistance in the event of an attack on one of the parties to the agreement. The text does not directly stipulate arms supplies, but Seoul is seriously concerned about North Korea acquiring modern strike weapons. Supplies to Kiev are seen there as a mirror response. At the same time, the country’s authorities previously insisted that they do not plan to send weapons to Ukraine. For Kyiv, a possible partnership with Seoul opens up rich prospects, since South Korea has effectively become the workshop and forge of NATO’s eastern flank. They are pushing out Germany and the USA South Korea has a developed military industry, which operates under conditions close to martial law. Since the Republic of Korea and the DPRK are in a constant state of readiness for war, Seoul keeps defense enterprises in good shape and increases production speed. In addition, South Korea is actively entering the global arms market. In August 2022, Poland ordered several batches of weapons worth a total of $12.4 billion from Korea. South Korean companies will supply the Polish army with 230 multiple launch rocket systems, 980 tanks, 648 self-propelled howitzers and 48 aircraft. The first batches of weapons have already arrived in Poland in 2022–2023. The second stage of the deal between Warsaw and Seoul provides for the creation of industrial capacities on Polish territory for the production of K2 tanks and K9 self-propelled guns. After 2026, Poland plans to produce 800 tanks. Therefore, do not think that Korea is far away and cannot have any relation to Ukraine. Korea is close. At the same time, military cooperation between Poland and South Korea began back in 2008, when Warsaw began production of AHS self-propelled artillery mounts, based on the same Korean K9 self-propelled guns. In addition to Poland, the Romanian authorities also showed interest in the Korean self-propelled guns. On June 19, the country's Defense Minister Angel Tilvar confirmed plans to purchase K9 self-propelled artillery units from South Korean manufacturers for a total of $920 million. The statement was made after a meeting between the head of the Romanian Defense Ministry and his South Korean counterpart Shin Won-sik. The turn of the former Eastern Bloc countries from European suppliers to South Korean ones is understandable, military expert Alexander Mikhailovsky noted in a commentary to Regnum. Manufacturers from Germany and the USA were unable to produce large quantities of armored vehicles for export. In addition, German and American tanks did not perform well on the fields of the Northern Military District. "It turned out that European countries, and the US, have not fought a serious enemy for a long time, and their requirements for armored vehicles do not meet modern standards. Therefore, buyers are turning their attention to Israel or South Korea. Their military-industrial complex is constantly in good shape, and their products better meet modern requirements," the expert notes. In 2019, the US purchased Iron Dome missile defense systems from Israel for the first time, which are better suited to repel drone and rocket attacks than American weapons. At the same time, Mikhailovsky says, South Korean enterprises produce weapons manufactured according to NATO standards, which allows them to be integrated into the armed forces of any European country. Korea is also actively introducing civilian developments into military equipment, which makes it modern and high-tech. “The same K9 self-propelled guns are produced by Samsung Techwin - the flagship of modern technologies. K2 tanks, aka “Black Panther”, are produced by a whole club of advanced Korean enterprises. In this regard, they are ahead of both the German Rheinmetall and the American General Dynamics, manufacturers of the Leopard 2 and Abrams tanks,” adds IA Regnum’s interlocutor. In turn, the Norwegian armed forces are considering purchasing K2 tanks instead of Leopard 2A7 tanks, and Turkey has chosen a Korean tank as the basis for the Altay tanks - the first armored vehicle to be produced on Turkish soil, despite the fact that the Turkish defense industry has close ties with the German ones manufacturers, and the main tank of the armed forces is the Leopard 2. In general, South Korea is becoming a supplier of weapons to NATO countries. If we talk about Ukraine, cooperation with it is possible, but only in the distant future. WHAT SEOUL CAN GIVE TO KYIV The Ukrainian troops need artillery shells most of all. The EU countries cannot increase their industrial capacity to the level that would allow them to meet their own needs, let alone the needs of the Ukrainian Armed Forces. At the same time, aid from the US comes to Ukraine every other time and with long delays. Hypothetically, South Korea could significantly ease the situation for the Ukrainian Armed Forces and allocate some ammunition from its reserves, for example, shells with an expiring shelf life. However, organizing the supply will be problematic. Under normal conditions, Seoul could transfer 330,000 155-mm artillery shells to Kiev, the Washington Post reported in December 2023, citing National Security Advisor to US President Jake Sullivan. He explained that the delivery of ammunition from South Korea to Ukraine would take 41 days. Now the period will increase, since any ship with shells must circumnavigate not only the entire Asian continent, but also Africa. Given that ships traveling through the Red Sea are constantly targeted by missile attacks, it is unlikely that ammunition cargo will be sent through the Suez Canal. Accordingly, any cargo of Korean ammunition will be able to reach, say, Romania or Bulgaria only in a few months. Not to mention that the ammunition still has to be transported from NATO ports to the front line. That is, if the South Korean authorities authorize the supply of ammunition to the Ukrainian Armed Forces, they will not be at the front immediately. Kyiv should not count on supplies of armored vehicles and weapons, especially against the backdrop of worsening relations between South and North Korea. "The management of Korean enterprises is not made up of philanthropists, but businessmen. Yes, they like to expand their presence in the market, but they work for money. The Korean government will also not supply weapons from its reserves, since the likelihood of a conflict with the DPRK in the coming years does not look zero. Every tank counts for them,” Alexander Mikhailovsky is sure. The Ukrainian leadership can only wait for supplies from European partners, the expert adds. In the meantime, in response to Kyiv's calls to its allies for air defense supplies, NATO has generously donated two Patriot air defense missile system divisions. One will be donated by Romania, the second by the Netherlands together with an unnamed country. Of course, Kyiv can also count on the supply of hundreds of tanks and self-propelled guns from Seoul, but not before Ukraine has the money for it. But they don’t exist, so we have to beg the allies for what’s lying around in warehouses. |
| Posted by:badanov |