North Korea’s military is being transformed on the battlefields of Ukraine – so why is Seoul silent?

Images that Ukraine claims show North Korean troops who had just taken part in an assault on a Ukrainian position. South Korea has remained largely silent on the North’s involvement in Russia’s war. Photograph: EyePress News/REX/Shutterstock

When North Korea fired multiple ballistic missiles from its eastern coast in May, South Korea’s response was swift. Within hours, Seoul joined Washington and Tokyo in condemning the launch as a “serious threat” to regional peace and security.

But just weeks earlier, when a North Korean KN-23 missile – designed to strike South Korean targets – hit a residential building in Kyiv, killing 12 civilians, Seoul said nothing.