hankyoreh

Dmytro Ponomarenko, the Ukrainian ambassador to South Korea, speaks with the Hankyoreh from the Ukrainian Embassy in Seoul’s Yongsan District on March 25, 2022. (Shin So-young/The Hankyoreh)

The Ukrainian ambassador to South Korea canceled a planned visit to a Korean company that manufactures missiles.

Ambassador Dmytro Ponomarenko had been planning to visit LIG Nex1 on Friday but called off the visit after it was reported on by the press, a source in the defense industry told the Hankyoreh on Thursday.

The Ukrainian embassy to South Korea had recently set up a visit for the ambassador to the company’s headquarters in Pangyo, south of Seoul.

LIG Nex1 is the manufacturer of multiple missile systems, including the Cheongung medium-range surface-to-air missile, the Singung portable surface-to-air missile, and the Hyeongung portable anti-tank missile. Last year, the company inked a 4 trillion won export deal with the United Arab Emirates for its Cheongung missile.

During his visit to LIG Nex1, Ponomarenko had reportedly been planning to personally ask for missiles to use against Russia. Ukraine has repeatedly asked Korea for weapons aid, but the Korean government has made clear several times that it cannot provide lethal weapons.

“Since we cannot provide missiles to Ukraine without the government’s approval, we could only have given Ponomarenko an overall briefing of the company, and not specific weapon systems, if he had visited,” a source at LIG Nex1 said.

Given the sensitive nature of the visit, LIG Nex1 had intended to keep it off the record and downplay its formality by having Ponomarenko be briefed not by the company president but by the director of its overseas sales division. When news of the ambassador’s visit was broken on Thursday afternoon, the visit could no longer be kept secret and was ultimately called off.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a virtual speech to South Korea’s National Assembly on Monday that Korea “has military equipment that can counter Russian tanks, ships, and missiles.”

Zelenskyy officially asked for weapons aid from South Korea, saying that he would “be grateful if the Republic of Korea could help us fight against Russia.”

By Kwon Hyuk-chul, staff reporter

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