There is a confidential arms deal between Seoul and Washington, according to which the United States would buy 100,000 rounds of 150-millimeter artillery ammunition from its ally, the Wall Street Journal reported on its website on Thursday (local time), citing US officials .
The Defense Ministry in Seoul confirmed that South Korean companies are negotiating with the US to export ammunition. The purchase is intended to “compensate for the shortage of 150mm ammunition in stock” in the United States. The implied amount would be enough, according to the newspaper, to provide Ukraine’s artillery forces with ammunition for at least a few weeks to ward off Russian troops.
USA must be “end user” according to South Korea
The ministry stressed that it would negotiate on the premise that the US was an “end user.” Nothing has changed in South Korea’s position on not supplying lethal weapons to Ukraine.
Experts: Russia probably depends on arms imports
South Korea’s largely isolated neighbor North Korea recently denied statements by the US government that it was secretly sending ammunition to Russia. North Korea responded to statements by US National Security Council communications director John Kirby. He recently criticized the fact that Russia received artillery shells from North Korea and used them for its war of aggression against Ukraine. Military experts suspect that Russia could be dependent on arms imports due to supply bottlenecks in the domestic arms industry.
Ukraine War: Mass grave in the Izyum Forest
US to buy South Korean howitzer rounds to send to Ukraine
The U.S. will buy 100,000 rounds of howitzer artillery from South Korean manufacturers to provide to Ukraine, a U.S. official said Thursday, in a deal the two governments have been working on for some time.
The agreement comes as Ukrainian leaders press for more weapons and aid to take advantage of a counteroffensive that is pushing Russian forces out of some areas they had taken over earlier in the war. And it relieves concerns within the U.S. military — particularly the Army and the Marine Corps — who are worried that persistent transfers of the Pentagon’s howitzer ammunition to Ukraine are eating into their stockpiles.
Other defense officials confirmed the broad outlines of the contract and said it would help with stockpile pressures, specifically involving the howitzer ammunition, which Ukrainian forces have been using at a high rate. Last week a defense official briefing reporters said Ukraine was burning through as many as 7,000 rounds of ammunition a day, while Russia was firing as much as 20,000 rounds daily.
The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because details of the deal had not been made public.
South Korea’s Defense Ministry in a statement acknowledged ongoing talks over exporting an unspecified number of 155-millimeter artillery shells to shore up diminishing U.S. inventories. However, the ministry said the negotiations were proceeding under the presumption that the U.S. would be the “end user” of those rounds and that Seoul maintains its principle of providing only non-lethal support to Ukraine.
The South Korea agreement provides a sharp counterpoint to U.S. accusations earlier this month that North Korea was covertly shipping artillery to Russia. It’s not immediately clear whether the deal opens the possibility of South and North Korean artillery being fired against each other in Ukraine.
North Korea has aligned with Russia over the war in Ukraine while also blaming the United States for the crisis, insisting that the West’s “hegemonic policy” has forced Russia to take military action to protect its security interests. However, Pyongyang has repeatedly denied U.S. claims that it has been sending large supplies of artillery shells and other ammunition to Russia, accusing the Biden administration of a smear campaign.
Experts say North Korea has the potential to become a major source of munitions for Russia, considering the interoperability of their weapons systems based on Soviet roots. They say that the North, which has used the distraction created by the war to ramp up missile tests to a record pace, could seek to receive in return Russian fuel and technology transfers to further advance its military capabilities as it pursues more powerful missiles and nuclear warheads.
Until now, South Korea had previously limited its support for Ukraine to non-lethal equipment and supplies. In April, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy pressed South Korea to provide lethal arms after Russia’s attack on Mariupol. Seoul’s Defense Ministry confirmed at the time that it had rejected the Ukrainian request for anti-aircraft weapons, citing the South Korean government’s principle of sending only non-lethal aid.
International security experts have said both North Korea and South Korea maintain vast stockpiles of ammunition due to the decades-long tensions along their heavily fortified and militarized shared border.
In a statement, Army Lt. Col. Marty Meiners, a Pentagon spokesman, said the U.S. government has been in discussions to buy ammunition from South Korea’s non-government defense industrial base. The ammunition would not come from South Korean military stocks. He declined to provide details.
Meiners said any potential sales always take into account the South Korean military’s readiness and requirements and “will not detract from our defensive posture or readiness to respond against regional threats.” He added that South Korea’s defense industry regularly sells military equipment and weapons systems to allies and partners, including the U.S.
South Korea has also inked several recent arms deals with European countries eager to bolster their defenses in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, including almost $9 billion in multiple contracts with Poland to provide F-16 fighter jets, training aircraft, tanks and howitzers.
The ammunition deal was first reported by the Wall Street Journal.
Meiners said he could not provide information on how quickly the ammunition could get to Ukraine. He said the Pentagon has regular conversations with South Korea and other allies around the world about how best to support Ukraine in the war.
The revelation of the agreement came as Russia said it was beginning to withdraw its forces from the key city of Kherson. Ukrainian officials acknowledged Moscow’s troops had no choice but to flee Kherson, yet they remained cautious, fearing an ambush.
Kherson was the only provincial capital Moscow captured after invading Ukraine in February. A Russian withdrawal would mark a serious setback for Moscow, while giving Ukraine a critical launching pad for supplies and troops to aid its effort to win back other lost territory in the south, including Crimea, which Moscow seized in 2014.
