US to buy South Korean howitzer rounds to provide Ukraine

Washington, The Gulf Observer: The U.S. will buy 100,000 rounds of howitzer artillery from South Korean manufacturers to provide Ukraine, a U.S. official said Thursday, in a deal the two governments have been working on for some time.

The agreement comes as Ukrainian leaders press for more weapons and aid to take advantage of a counteroffensive that is pushing Russian forces out of some areas they had taken over earlier in the war. And it relieves concerns within the U.S. military particularly the Army and the Marine Corps who are worried that persistent transfers of the Pentagon’s howitzer ammunition to Ukraine are eating into their stockpiles.

Other defense officials confirmed the broad outlines of the contract and said it would help with stockpile pressures, specifically involving the howitzer ammunition, which Ukrainian forces have been using at a high rate. Last week a defense official briefing reporters said Ukraine was burning through as many as 7,000 rounds of ammunition a day, while Russia was firing as much as 20,000 rounds daily.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because details of the deal had not been made public.

South Korea’s Defense Ministry in a statement acknowledged ongoing talks over exporting an unspecified number of 155-millimeter artillery shells to shore up diminishing U.S. inventories. However, the ministry said the negotiations were proceeding under the presumption that the U.S. would be the “end user” of those rounds and that Seoul maintains its principle of providing only non-lethal support to Ukraine.

The South Korea agreement provides a sharp counterpoint to U.S. accusations earlier this month that North Korea was covertly shipping artillery to Russia. It’s not immediately clear whether the deal opens the possibility of South and North Korean artillery being fired against each other in Ukraine.

North Korea has aligned with Russia over the war in Ukraine while also blaming the United States for the crisis, insisting that the West’s “hegemonic policy” has forced Russia to take military action to protect its security interests. However, Pyongyang has repeatedly denied U.S. claims that it has been sending large supplies of artillery shells and other ammunition to Russia, accusing the Biden administration of a smear campaign.

Until now, South Korea had previously limited its support for Ukraine to non-lethal equipment and supplies. In April, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy pressed South Korea to provide lethal arms after Russia’s attack on Mariupol. Seoul’s Defense Ministry confirmed at the time that it had rejected the Ukrainian request for anti-aircraft weapons, citing the South Korean government’s principle of sending only non-lethal aid.

In a statement, Army Lt. Col. Marty Meiners, a Pentagon spokesman, said the U.S. government has been in discussions to buy ammunition from South Korea’s non-government defense industrial base. The ammunition would not come from South Korean military stocks. He declined to provide details.

South Korea has also inked several recent arms deals with European countries eager to bolster their defenses in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, including almost $9 billion in multiple contracts with Poland to provide F-16 fighter jets, training aircraft, tanks and howitzers.

The ammunition deal was first reported by the Wall Street Journal.