SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea’s president vowed to immediately retaliate against possible North Korean provocations in his Armed Forces Day speech Tuesday, as thousands of soldiers prepared to parade through the capital in the first military parade of its kind in a decade march.
The show of force comes as concerns grow that North Korea is seeking Russian help to expand its nuclear arsenal and in return will supply Moscow with conventional weapons depleted by the war with Ukraine.
“Based on combat-ready combat capabilities and a solid preparedness posture, our military will immediately retaliate against any North Korean provocation,” President Yoon Suk Yeol said at a ceremony after reviewing soldiers and advanced conventional weapons systems at a military airport near Seoul.
“If North Korea uses nuclear weapons, its regime will be ended by an overwhelming response from the South Korea-U.S. alliance,” he said.
Yoon said he would strive to “build a strong military that instills fear in the enemy.”
Later Tuesday, around 4,600 South Korean soldiers, accompanied by more than 300 U.S. combat troops, were expected to march through the streets of Seoul along with tanks, missiles and other weapons to demonstrate their readiness. South Korea last held such a parade in 2013.
Concerns about military ties between North Korea and Russia grew earlier this month when North Korean leader Kim Jong Un traveled to Russia’s Far Eastern region to meet with President Vladimir Putin and visit key military sites.
North Korea reportedly wants to obtain Russian technologies to support the development of spy satellites, nuclear submarines and powerful long-range missiles. Such weapons would pose a major security threat to South Korea and the United States
Yoon did not mention North Korea-Russia relations in his speech on Tuesday. But in an address to the U.N. General Assembly last week, he said South Korea “will not stand idly by” if North Korea and Russia agree to such arms deals, in violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions that ban all arms trade with North Korea.
U.S. officials also said North Korea and Russia would face consequences if they struck such deals.
Senior diplomats from South Korea, Japan and China also met in Seoul on Tuesday to discuss their leaders’ first summit in four years, according to South Korean officials. Yoon said last week that Chinese Prime Minister Li Qiang and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida had expressed support for a trilateral summit in South Korea.
Yoon’s moves to strengthen South Korea’s military alliance with the United States and promote security cooperation between Seoul, Washington and Tokyo have raised fears that Seoul’s ties with China, its largest trading partner, will be undermined. But Yoon says cooperation between Seoul, Washington and Tokyo will not marginalize any particular nation.