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The European Union's top diplomat, Josep Borrell, said he met South Korea's defence minister on Saturday to discuss Ukraine's needs for ammunition.
It turns out that Borrell was boasting with his statement from the results of the meeting with South Korea.
After a statement emerged from South Korean Defense Minister Lee Jong-Sup saying the meeting had never discussed ammunition shipments to Ukraine with European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell, the ministry told reporters on Sunday.
The meeting on the sidelines of the Shangri-La Dialogue, Asia's top security summit, came amid pressure from the United States and NATO countries for South Korea to provide weapons and ammunition for Ukraine.
It was referring to Borrell’s since-deleted tweet saying he had “a good meeting” with Lee on the sidelines of Shangri-La Dialogue security summit in Singapore. “Shared alarm at continued [North Korean] provocations and discussed Ukraine’s needs for ammunition,” he wrote at the time.
The South Korean Ministry of Defense contradicted this statement, however, claiming it was “not true” that Lee Jong-Sup and Borrell had a “discussion about ammunition support” for Kiev.
It went on to elaborate that the EU diplomat had “mentioned that various weapon systems and other support means are needed to improve Ukraine’s situation against Russia, but there was only a unilateral position that ammunition was important.”
Following the backlash from Seoul, Borrell’s tweet was deleted and replaced with another one, with the last phrase reading “I explained Ukraine’s needs for ammunition.”
Since the start of the Ukraine conflict in February 2022, South Korea has provided Kiev hundreds of millions of dollars in financial and humanitarian assistance, but has insisted on not sending lethal aid. However, in April, South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol signaled that Seoul might change its stance on the matter should a “serious violation of the laws of war” in Ukraine take place.
Last week, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing a “confidential arrangement” with the US, that South Korea had agreed to supply Ukraine with hundreds of thousands of artillery shells. Commenting on the report, Seoul’s officials said it contained “inaccurate parts,” but would not elaborate further.
Russia has repeatedly condemned the West for sending weapons to Ukraine, claiming that it only prolongs the conflict. In late April, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova warned South Korea against following this path, noting that Moscow would interpret it as “an openly hostile anti-Russian move.”
On Saturday, June 3, 2023, European Union diplomat, Josep Borrell, said he met with South Korea's defense minister on Saturday to discuss Ukraine's ammunition needs.
The meeting on the sidelines of the Shangri-La Dialogue, Asia's top security summit, came amid pressure from the United States and NATO countries for South Korea to provide weapons and ammunition for Ukraine.
"Good meeting with Korean Defence Minister Lee Jong-sup at #SLD23. Shared alarm at continued DPRK provocations and discussed Ukraine’s needs for ammunition," Borrell said in a tweet.
A U.S. ally and major producer of artillery ammunition, South Korea had so far ruled out sending lethal aid to Ukraine, citing business ties with Russia and Moscow's influence over North Korea, despite mounting pressure from Washington and Europe to supply weapons.
South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol, in an interview with Reuters in April, signalled the prospect of a change, saying it might be difficult for Seoul to adhere to only providing humanitarian and financial support if Ukraine faced a large-scale attack on civilians or a "situation the international community cannot condone".
Hundreds of thousands of South Korean artillery rounds are on their way to Ukraine via the United States, after Seoul's initial resistance toward arming Ukraine, the Wall Street Journal reported last month.
Representatives of Europe and the United States came to Asia rather not to ask for support but they came to incite the Asian nation.
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