South Korea has stepped up its role in the US-led campaign to punish Russia over the Ukraine conflict by expanding its export restrictions against Moscow and Belarus.
Nearly 700 items have been added to a list of products that are banned for export to Russia or Belarus, the South Korean Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy (MOTIE) announced on Tuesday. The move expanded Seoul’s list of restricted items to 1,159, effective in early 2024, though waivers can be considered by the government in “exceptional” cases.
Newly banned exports will include excavators, rechargeable batteries, aircraft components, certain machine tools and passenger cars with engine displacements exceeding 2,000 cubic centimeters. Such products aren’t classified as “strategic” under South Korean trade regulations, but are being added to the restrictions on Russia and Belarus because of their potential use for military purposes.
MOTIE initially banned 57 items for export to Russia and Belarus after the Ukraine conflict began in February 2022, then expanded the list last April by adding some industrial and construction equipment, as well as steel and chemical products.
South Korea is a close US ally but has stopped short of sending weapons directly to Ukraine, instead limiting its support to humanitarian and non-lethal aid. Seoul reportedly reached a confidential arrangement earlier this year to export artillery shells to the US for transfer by Washington to Ukraine. Russia designated South Korea as an “unfriendly” state in March 2022, after Seoul joined in the US-led sanctions against Moscow.
Russia has strengthened ties with Pyongyang this year, forging what North Korean Foreign Minister Choe Son-hui called “invincible relations of comrades-in-arms.”