The deal, according to the Wall Street Journal, will see the US buy 100,000 rounds of 155mm ammunition to be delivered to Ukraine, reflecting the need to replenish dwindling ammunition stocks worldwide ten months after Russia invaded the neighboring country.
Lee Yong-sup, Seoul’s defense minister, reportedly “agreed in principle” to the deal when he met with US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin earlier this month.
The decision puts the South in a potential proxy battle with rival North Korea, which the White House accused last week of providing shells to Russia through missions in the Middle East.
But sending the weapons through the US allows Seoul, which has growing ambitions to become a major global arms supplier, to keep its public pledge not to send lethal military support to Kyiv while helping Washington, its most important ally of defending South Korea against a nuclear threat from the North.
The rounds will be enough to fuel Ukraine for several weeks at a crucial time in the war, when it begins to make significant gains in forcing Russian forces out of the strategic city of Kherson.
