By Lami Kim

“How Seoul should respond to North Korea’s Soldiers in Russia” is a new OpEd by Dr. Lami Kim published by the United States Institute for Peace.

As North Korean soldiers deploy to Russia, South Korea faces complex security challenges that could shift the regional military balance. North Korea’s involvement in the Ukraine war marks the first large-scale combat engagement of its military since the Korean War, exposing its troops to modern warfare and potentially securing lucrative cash flows from Russia, despite sanctions. Additionally, the specter of Moscow supplying Pyongyang with advanced military technologies threatens to destabilize the Korean Peninsula.

In her analysis, Lami Kim notes, “The global consequences cannot be understated, as this development raises serious concerns not just for the war in Ukraine, but for security on the Korean Peninsula as well.” South Korea has provided substantial humanitarian aid to Ukraine but has refrained from supplying lethal arms due to legal and public resistance. President Yoon Suk-yeol has indicated Seoul may reconsider, contingent on the level of North Korea’s involvement in Ukraine, hinting that Seoul “won’t sit idle.”

Lami Kim is a professor at the Daniel K. Inouye Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies, a U.S. Department of Defense institute based in Hawaii. The views expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the U.S. Department of Defense or the U.S. government.