Seoul denies arming Ukraine

South Korea has only offered humanitarian assistance to Kiev, President Yoon said after Putin’s remarks

Seoul has not provided lethal aid to Ukraine, South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol said on Friday following remarks made by Russian President Vladimir Putin, who said such a move would hurt bilateral relations with South Korea.

“We’ve provided humanitarian and peaceful assistance to Ukraine but never lethal weapons,” the South Korean leader told reporters, as quoted by Yonhap. “It’s a matter of sovereignty, and we are trying to maintain peaceful relations with all countries around the world, including Russia.”

Putin claimed on Thursday that, as far as Russia knew, Seoul “has taken a decision to supply weapons and munitions to Ukraine,” adding that any such decision would “deteriorate our relations.”

“How would the Korean Republic take it, if we renewed cooperation in that area with North Korea? Would you have liked it?” he asked.


READ MORE: North and South Korea trade warning shots

Earlier, Czech media claimed that Washington wanted to procure man-portable anti-aircraft rockets and artillery munitions from South Korea worth some $3 billion with a view to supplying them to Ukraine via the Czech Republic.

Putin’s remarks came during a panel discussion at the Valdai Discussion Club outside Moscow. The Russian leader was responding to questions from a South Korean journalist about tensions between the US and China, and about North Korea’s nuclear arms program.

Not-So-Great Reset: Live In A Box, Don’t Move, Be Surveilled, Shut Up, Eat Bugs

Michael Walsh, author of Against the Great Reset: Eighteen Theses Contra the New World Order, noted on Wednesday’s edition of SiriusXM’s Breitbart News Daily with host Alex Marlow that the World Economic Forum’s [WEF] Great Reset program seeks to reduce the human population while restricting freedoms under the auspices of what the leftist organization describes as “climate change” and “public health” pursuits.

Walsh recalled how the WEF’s Great Reset operation was widely dismissed by leftists as a “conspiracy theory,” despite the WEF regularly promoting its Malthusian vision on its website, at its hosted discussion panels, and on its podcast titled The Great Reset.

“[The Great Reset] is a conspiracy that’s actually on the website of the people who are conspiring,” Walsh remarked. He described the WEF as “a consortium of plutocrats, fascists, and governmental apparatchiks.”

The WEF’s executives and membership share a vision of endlessly centralized control over humanity via increasingly tightening spheres of freedom around individuals, Walsh observed.

“[They] wish to basically have you live in a high-rise, drive an electric car — or preferably don’t drive the electric car, they don’t like you mobile — and eat bugs,” he said.

Breitbart News reported on recent news media promotion of Dutch children eating insects — ostensibly to combat “climate change” by lowering carbon dioxide emissions with insect production relative to animal husbandry and meat processing — as an illustration of leftist premises used as pretexts for government control over food production.

Walsh linked governmental and institutional abuses marketed as “public health” measures to the WEF’s Great Reset.

He stated, “They even wrote a book called COVID-19: The Great Reset. So now you see the link to what we just went through for two years of the COVID hoax, and the COVID fascist lockdowns, and the abrogation of our civil rights.”

Read More: Not-So-Great Reset: Live In A Box, Don’t Move, Be Surveilled, Shut Up, Eat Bugs

North Korea fires two ballistic missiles

The US and South Korea claim that a series of recent launches by Pyongyang were carried out in preparation for a nuclear test

North Korea fired two short-range ballistic missiles off its coast on Friday, the latest in a series of launches since the start of this month, the South Korean military has said.

Seoul’s Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said it “detected the launches from the Tongchon area in Kangwon Province.” The Tongchon range is located some 60 km (37 miles) from the inter-Korean border. It appears to be closer to South Korean territory than any other launch site used by Pyongyang this year.

South Korean forces are “maintaining a full readiness posture in close cooperation with the United States”, the JCS said in a text message sent to the media, according to South Korea’s Yonhap news agency.

The Japanese authorities later said the North Korean missiles fell into the Sea of Japan, outside Tokyo’s exclusive economic zone.

The test by Pyongyang comes on the final day of South Korea’s “Hoguk” amphibious naval exercises, which also involved an unspecified number of American troops. On Monday, Seoul and Washington are also set to kick off their joint “Vigilant Storm” drills, expected to involve more than 200 fighter jets.

Read more

North and South Korea trade warning shots

North Korea has always expressed anger over such exercises, calling them a rehearsal for an invasion of its territory. According to Pyongyang, its intensified ballistic missile tests in recent weeks were justified “countermeasures” to aggressive actions by South Korea and the US.

Seoul and Washington claim the launches were actually carried out in preparation for North Korea’s first nuclear test since 2017.

On Tuesday, South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol told parliament: “it appears they [Pyongyang] have already completed preparations for a seventh nuclear test.” The US, South Korea and Japan warned the next day that such a move would be met with an “unparalleled” response.

Pyongyang placed a moratorium on nuclear tests in 2018 after the beginning of peace talks between North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and then-US President Donald Trump. But the negotiations soon stalled over Washington’s unwillingness to lift sanctions. Despite claiming it was ready to consider “some form of diplomacy” with North Korea, the Biden administration has so far failed to launch any meaningful dialogue with North Korea.


READ MORE: North Korea fires artillery near border

Last month, Kim declared his country an “irreversible” nuclear power, effectively signaling an end to negotiations on denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. He said North Korea would put an emphasis on developing tactical nukes and was ready to conduct multiple atomic tests as part of the program.