South Korea decided to ban exports of strategic materials to Russia and joins moves by a number of Western countries to exclude Russia from the SWIFT global payments network. The sanctions are a move to support the campaign to hold Russia responsible for the invasion of Ukraine.
South Korea's Foreign Ministry made the announcement as Washington gathers allies and partners to impose "devastating costs" on Russia, including isolation from the global financial and trade system.
Seoul has informed Washington of its decision on sanctions to be applied to Russia through diplomatic channels, South Korea's Foreign Ministry said, following various considerations, including relations with Moscow, which is still a peace partner on the Korean Peninsula, trade and other exchanges.
In addition, South Korea plans to strengthen export screening procedures regarding Russia.
South Korea is also projected to ban the export of strategic materials to Russia which are selected by the four multilateral export control regimes, namely, the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG); the Wassenaar Arrangement (WA); the Australia Group (AG); and the Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR).
The regime is aimed at fending off the spread of weapons of mass destruction, their delivery vehicles and related technology and equipment.
Earlier, the United States (US) government announced restrictions on exports of US-origin technology and products to 49 Russian military entities, including its defense ministry, under a "rejection policy."
Washington is known to have asked Seoul to take strong export control measures against Moscow.
South Korea also plans to finalize a decision on possible steps it could take in relation to Russia's US self-export restrictions on dozens of items, such as semiconductors, computers, telecommunications, information security equipment, lasers and sensors.
On the financial front, Seoul plans to join the move to remove Russia from the SWIFT payment system that connects 11,000 banks and institutions in more than 200 countries and allows seamless cross-border money transfers.
The US, UK, Canada and other countries have moved to exclude major Russian banks from the system.
South Korea plans to decide on specific steps to join the financial sanctions after inter-agency consultations, the ministry said.
In addition to taking part in the sanctions program, Seoul plans to increase humanitarian support for Ukraine. That includes the provision of military suits and other in-kind contributions and the expansion of official development assistance allocated to Ukraine.
