Opposition lawmaker urges government to consider supplying Cheongung-II air defense system to Ukraine

People Power Party lawmaker Yoo Yong-won urged the government Tuesday to seriously consider supplying Ukraine with air defense systems, including the Cheongung-II, saying the security landscape has changed so fundamentally that Seoul's early-war principle of non-military support is no longer sufficient to protect national security and interests.

Yoo, a member of the National Assembly's National Defense Committee, held a press conference at the National Assembly's communication hall Tuesday morning. "The air defense systems Ukraine has requested are not weapons designed to attack an adversary — they are quintessential defensive weapons that protect civilians and infrastructure from missile and drone strikes," he said.

He said he was not calling for the immediate supply of offensive weapons, but added that "the government must actively weigh the security and national-interest benefits that supplying the Cheongung-II would bring."

The Ukrainian government recently raised the possibility of additional North Korean troop deployments and formally asked South Korea for air defense weapons. President Volodymyr Zelensky earlier this month claimed that a decision had been made to send an additional 30,000 to 50,000 North Korean troops to Russia, and publicly requested air defense system support.

In response, the South Korean government reaffirmed its existing position, saying it would "review humanitarian and non-military support and explore ways to restore peace and rebuild."

"I understand the government's cautious stance," Yoo said, "but the current security situation is fundamentally different from the early days of the war, when that principle was established."

He said North Korea, after signing a comprehensive strategic partnership treaty with Russia in 2024, had supplied roughly 20,000 troops along with ballistic missiles and artillery shells, securing economic and military benefits in return.

"If additional deployments become a reality, it is all too clear that troops battle-hardened on the world's most intense front lines — along with advanced weapons systems whose performance has been proven in combat — will return as a direct threat aimed at South Korea," he said.

Yoo cited the acquisition of data on countering North Korean short-range ballistic missiles as a concrete benefit of providing air defense support. North Korea has fired more than 140 KN-23 and KN-24 missiles into Ukraine, steadily improving their accuracy, and real combat engagement data from the Cheongung-II against those missiles would help South Korea prepare for the short-range missile threat on the Korean Peninsula, he argued.

He also said there was a humanitarian case for the move, noting that the majority of casualties from Russian missile strikes have been civilians.

Yoo urged the government to "actively review options for supplying air defense weapons to Ukraine based on security and national interest," and said Seoul should analyze North Korean military tactics and weapons systems — and develop countermeasures — through military cooperation with the United States and Ukraine and by dispatching a combat-lessons analysis unit.

He also said the government should expand humanitarian support, play a role in the swift repatriation of North Korean prisoners of war, and strengthen international cooperation to counter the expansion of North Korea-Russia military cooperation.

Stressing the urgency of combat-lessons analysis, Yoo cited a recent joint US-Ukraine exercise in which a US armored brigade was wiped out in a short period of time by drone strikes from a Ukrainian unmanned-systems regiment.

"Preparing for North Korean forces who are gaining real combat experience in drone warfare and other areas is an urgent task directly tied not only to the outcome of future battles but to the lives of our service members," he said.

He also invoked Article 5 of the Constitution, which enshrines the maintenance of international peace and the rejection of wars of aggression. "Peace cannot be preserved by turning a blind eye to the suffering of allied nations and standing by while armed aggression unfolds," he said.

Yoo also pointed to growing concerns about gaps in the combined defense posture, citing North Korean missile launches and provocations near the truce line on top of US President Donald Trump's order to sharply curtail joint US-South Korea military exercises.

"I strongly urge the government to face reality squarely and make a more strategic and responsible decision," Yoo said.