SEOUL, June 28. /TASS/. South Korea’s presidential office believes that the Wagner private military company’s mutiny in Russia and its consequences have impacted Seoul’s interests, Yonhap reported on Wednesday.
"We can't think of the Wagner incident as being completely over. We're analyzing the impact of this incident," a presidential official said.
"It’s an event that impacts our national interests," another official said. He warned that the mutiny should not be viewed as "a minor event" that emerged out of Russia’s special military operation in Ukraine.
On Tuesday, a South Korean diplomat said it was too early to judge whether the mutiny would affect "North Korean weapons supplies to Russia," a trade the United States claimed was taking place. The South Korean government is watching the situation, he reiterated.
In December, John Kirby, the Coordinator for Strategic Communications at the National Security Council in the White House, claimed that North Korea shipped weapons to the Wagner PMC. Both Moscow and Pyongyang dismissed these allegations. Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova denied statements by US officials about North Korean artillery shipments to Russia, saying the claims were "false from start to finish."
On the evening of June 23, Yevgeny Prigozhin, founder of Wagner PMC, alleged on his Telegram channel that Wagner units had been attacked, accusing Russia’s top brass of complicity in the situation. The Defense Ministry in turn termed the information as fake.
Wagner units, supported by Prigozhin, headed for Rostov-on-Don and then turned toward Moscow. Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) opened a criminal case concerning a call for armed insurrection. Russian President Vladimir Putin called Wagner’s actions a betrayal in a televised address.
Later, by agreement with Putin, Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko held talks with Prigozhin, following which the Wagner fighters stood down and retreated to their base camp. Criminal charges were dropped against Prigozhin, the FSB said.