▲ This file photo shows President Yoon Suk Yeol (L) posing with Ambassador to Russia Chang Ho-jin after presenting him with credentials at the presidential office in Seoul on Aug. 12, 2022. (Yonhap)

vice minister-Russia visit

First vice FM to visit Russia soon amid tensions over Ukraine: sources

SEOUL, May 1 (Yonhap) -- First Vice Foreign Minister Chang Ho-jin is expected to pay a visit to Russia soon, sources said Monday, after tensions flared between the two countries following President Yoon Suk Yeol's suggestion of the possibility of South Korea providing weapons aid to Ukraine.

Chang, who served as an ambassador to Russia until early last month, plans to make a two-day trip to Moscow in mid-May to exchange goodbye greetings with Russian officials because he was unable to do so as he took over as vice minister while on a visit to Seoul for a conference of diplomatic mission chiefs, the sources said.

But the trip comes amid tensions after Yoon signaled a shift in South Korea's policy of providing only nonlethal aid to Ukraine, saying in an interview with Reuters it might be difficult to insist only on humanitarian or financial assistance if Ukraine comes under a large-scale attack on civilians.

Russia has since warned that supplying military aid to Ukraine would mean Seoul "becoming involved in the conflict to a certain extent" and would represent "an openly hostile anti-Russian move."

The issue is widely expected to come up during Chang's meetings with Russian officials.

Yoon later said in an interview with the Washington Post that the issue of whether to provide weapons aid to Ukraine is something that South Korea should consider while taking into account "many direct and indirect relationships between our country and the warring countries."

"This visit is being arranged from the prospect that it would be better to make sure to offer goodbye greetings at a time when South Korea has been designated as an unfriendly nation after taking part in anti-Russia sanctions," a senior official told Yonhap News Agency.

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