As part of Poland’s modernization of and increase to its armed forces it’s in the process of purchasing tanks, self-propelled howitzers, missile launchers and light attack aircraft from South Korea amid speculation that, as a work around to Seoul’s restriction on supplying weapons to a country at war, Warsaw could transfer some weapons it was buying to Ukraine on the understanding other allies would replace them.
During a press conference following his meeting with South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol, Polish President Andrzej Duda was asked questions along those lines. According to Poland’s RMF 24 he ruled out the possibility of supplying the weapons that his country has ordered from South Korean manufacturers during a press conference.
Duda said, “…there is no scenario under consideration in which we hand over weapons, which we have recently purchased for billions of złoty from the pockets of our taxpayers to anyone. These weapons are to serve the security and defense of the Republic of Poland.”
He also said that he had been asked the same question by Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky but said his answer had been unequivocally the same: “…there is no such possibility, as long as I am the president , that we would give anyone the weapons that in recent years, in order to strengthen the security of the Republic of Poland, we have bought for billions of dollars from our common pockets, because these are taxpayers' pockets.”
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Poland has been a key supporter of Kyiv since the start of the 2022 full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine. Warsaw has supplied tanks, armored vehicles, howitzers, fighter jets and military materiel, albeit it mostly refurbished Soviet-era equipment. In the past year, however the relationship between the two has deteriorated over such issues as the Polish ban on Ukrainian grain imports at the end of 2023.
This has also soured defense cooperation although Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s government has continued be a leading advocate for Ukraine and the two countries signed a security cooperation agreement in July 2024. The pact calls for greater integration between the country’s defense industry and increased air-defense cooperation between the two in case of an attack.
It was, however, intimated that during the meeting between Presidents Duda and Yoon there had been some discussion surrounding Seoul’s review of its ban on providing weapons and other military support to Ukraine in its war with Russia. The deployment of North Korean troops for combat operations against Ukraine, which Yoon has called a “provocation that threatens global security beyond the Korean Peninsula and Europe,” may be the deciding factor in South Korea’s evaluation.
During the visit Duda toured armaments plants near the city of Busan, including the Hyundai Rotem plant in Changwon which among other things produces the K2 tank, 180 of which were ordered by Poland’s previous government in 2022 and which its Ministry of National Defense was negotiating another contract for a further 180 of K2 tanks.
He also visited the Hanwha Aerospace factory which is manufacturing K9 howitzers and Chunmoo rocket launchers for Poland.
These were the final ports of call of which had been a comprehensive and exhausting three-day visit for Duda and his wife which began on Tuesday, Oct. 23. As well as his meetings with South Korea’s president he met with, among others, Prime Minister Han Duck-soo, the Chair of the National Assembly Woo Won-shik. The Polish delegation also included the head of the Poland’s National Security Bureau Jacek Siewiera and the head of the Bureau of International Policy Mieszko Pawlak.
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