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Kremlin: South Korean Arms for Ukraine Would Signify Involvement in Conflict

Artillerymen of the Ukrainian 80th separate airborne assault brigade fire from a BM-21 Grad multiple rocket launcher towards Russian positions on the front line near Bakhmut in the Donetsk region, on April 18, 2023, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. (AFP)
Artillerymen of the Ukrainian 80th separate airborne assault brigade fire from a BM-21 Grad multiple rocket launcher towards Russian positions on the front line near Bakhmut in the Donetsk region, on April 18, 2023, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. (AFP)
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Kremlin: South Korean Arms for Ukraine Would Signify Involvement in Conflict

Artillerymen of the Ukrainian 80th separate airborne assault brigade fire from a BM-21 Grad multiple rocket launcher towards Russian positions on the front line near Bakhmut in the Donetsk region, on April 18, 2023, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. (AFP)
Artillerymen of the Ukrainian 80th separate airborne assault brigade fire from a BM-21 Grad multiple rocket launcher towards Russian positions on the front line near Bakhmut in the Donetsk region, on April 18, 2023, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. (AFP)

Any decision by South Korea to supply arms to Ukraine would make Seoul a participant in the conflict, the Kremlin said on Wednesday, after President Yoon Suk-yeol opened the door to such deliveries.

South Korea has denounced Russia's invasion of Ukraine and supplied economic and humanitarian aid to Kyiv, but unlike the United States and European allies has so far stopped short of sending weapons.

In a Reuters interview on Tuesday ahead of a visit to Washington next week, Yoon said Seoul would consider arming Kyiv in the event of a major new attack against Ukrainian civilians.

"Unfortunately, Seoul has taken a rather unfriendly position in this whole story," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters in a briefing.

"They will try to draw more and more countries directly into this conflict. But of course, the start of arms deliveries will obliquely mean a certain stage of involvement in this conflict."

Former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev, a close ally of President Vladimir Putin who frequently makes hawkish comments on Russia's military campaign in Ukraine, suggested Moscow could respond by supplying advanced weaponry to North Korea.

"I wonder what the inhabitants of this country [South Korea] will say when they see the latest designs of Russian weapons in the hands of their closest neighbors - our partners from the DPRK [North Korea]?" Medvedev said in a post on Telegram.

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Remains of 30 People Believed Killed by ISIS Found in Syria in a Search by Qatar and FBI 

Journalist James Foley responds to questions during an interview with The Associated Press, in Boston, May 27, 2011. (AP)
Journalist James Foley responds to questions during an interview with The Associated Press, in Boston, May 27, 2011. (AP)
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Remains of 30 People Believed Killed by ISIS Found in Syria in a Search by Qatar and FBI 

Journalist James Foley responds to questions during an interview with The Associated Press, in Boston, May 27, 2011. (AP)
Journalist James Foley responds to questions during an interview with The Associated Press, in Boston, May 27, 2011. (AP)

The remains of 30 people believed to have been killed by the ISIS group have been found in a remote Syrian town in a search led by Qatari search teams and the FBI, according to a statement from Qatar on Monday.

The Qatari internal security forces said the FBI had requested the search, and that DNA tests are currently underway to determine the identities of the people. The Qatari agency did not whom the American intelligence and security agency is trying to find.

Dozens of foreigners, including aid workers and journalists, were killed by ISIS militants who had controlled large swaths of Syria and Iraq for half a decade. The extremist group lost most of its territory in late 2017 and was declared defeated in 2019.

Since then, dozens of gravesites and mass graves have been discovered in northern Syria containing remains and bodies of people ISIS had abducted over the years.

American journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff, as well as humanitarian workers Kayla Mueller and Peter Kassig are among those killed by ISIS.

John Cantlie, a British correspondent, was abducted alongside Foley in 2012, and was last seen alive in one of the extremist group's propaganda videos in 2016.

The search took place in the town of Dabiq, near Syria's northern border with Türkiye.

Mass graves have also found in areas previously controlled by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad who was ousted in a lightning insurgency last December, ending his family's half-century rule. For years, the Assads used their notorious security and intelligence agencies to crack down on dissidents, many who have gone missing.

The United Nations in 2021 estimated that over 130,000 Syrians were taken away and disappeared during the peaceful uprising that began in 2011 and descended into a 13-year civil war.