South Korea plans monitoring team for Ukraine, not troops, says defence minister

On November 11, South Korea's Defence Minister Kim Yong-Hyun stressed that deploying a team of observers to Ukraine is crucial for the nation’s interests, highlighting that this would differ significantly from sending troops to Kyiv.

Kim made the comments during a session of the parliamentary defence committee, as the South Korean government contemplates sending a monitoring team to Ukraine, Caliber.Az reports via South Korean media.

The team could potentially engage in tasks such as analysing North Korean combat tactics and conducting interrogations of captured soldiers.

“A monitoring team is not the same as deploying military personnel,” Kim explained. “The team will not operate under a command structure and will be unarmed. It will be composed of a small group of professionals who will visit temporarily.”

The minister further clarified that any deployment of an observer team would be driven by South Korea’s national needs rather than a request from the United Nations or Ukraine.

In a previous meeting with reporters in Washington, D.C., last month, Kim ruled out the possibility of sending troops to Ukraine, stating that sending an observer team is necessary to gather valuable information that could enhance the country's security.

This comes on the back of a visit last week by a South Korean delegation, including senior military and intelligence officials, to Ukraine and the NATO headquarters in Brussels. The delegation discussed North Korea’s involvement in Russia’s troop deployment, further underscoring the growing strategic concerns in the region.

Meanwhile, South Korea is not ruling out the possibility of directly supplying weapons to Ukraine, President Yoon Suk-yeol has confirmed, in response to North Korea's recent deployment of troops to assist Russia in its ongoing war.

In a press conference on November 7, Yoon outlined the growing threat posed by Pyongyang’s involvement, noting that North Korean soldiers are gaining valuable combat experience—something that its military has lacked—and are being rewarded by Moscow with sensitive military technology transfers. This development, he said, represents a direct security concern for Seoul.

Despite South Korea’s long-standing policy of refraining from supplying arms to nations embroiled in conflict, Yoon indicated that the country would reassess its stance based on the extent of North Korea’s involvement in the war.

"Now, depending on the level of North Korean involvement, we will gradually adjust our support strategy in phases," he explained.

The South Korean president further emphasised that this could lead to the eventual provision of military aid. "This means we are not ruling out the possibility of providing weapons," Yoon stated.

The issue of North Korea’s actions was also discussed during a recent phone conversation between Yoon and United States President-elect Donald Trump, where they agreed to meet face-to-face in the “near future” to further address the situation.

By Aghakazim Guliyev