South Korea to sanction Belarus for 'effectively' supporting Russia's invasion of Ukraine

South Korea on Sunday announced that it will implement export controls and impose sanctions against Moscow’s close ally Belarus for "effectively supporting the Russian invasion of Ukraine,” joining the US, UK, Canada, and the EU nations. South Korea’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that it would notify the US and related allied countries of its decision, without detailing the specific measures that would be taken. According to The Korea Herald newspaper, the sanctions-related restriction on Belarus would take effect as of Monday and will be similar to Seoul’s export control against Russia that was announced last week. 

Belarus 'effectively' supporting Russia’s invasion of Ukraine: Seoul

“The Korean government decided today to implement export controls against Belarus, based on the judgment that Belarus is effectively supporting Russia’s invasion of Ukraine,” the ministry said in a statement. “We will convey the decision to the US and related countries as soon as possible while expanding the support and protection of South Korean companies and Korean nationals that could be affected by (the action).” 

Under the new sanctions against Minsk, South Korea will ban the export of strategic materials into the Russian allied nation. It will also blacklist two key entities close to Russian leader Vladimir Putin that will likely involve the Belarusian Defense Ministry. The export ban will be related to items such as conventional weapons, goods, and technologies that could make weapons of mass destruction, missiles, and others listed under multilateral export control regimes, including the Missile Technology Control Regime, Wassenaar Arrangement, Nuclear Suppliers Group, and Australia Group.

South Korea’s ministry also stated that it will restrict the sale of other non-strategic materials, as it did for Russia, although without naming the specific items. Just last week, Seoul had sanctioned as many as 49 entities, including Russia’s Defense Ministry, and had put many Russian-based businesses on its export blacklist in accordance with the US Entity List for export controls. It also joined the US, UK, Canada and other allies in scrapping the Russian banks’ access to the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication, or SWIFT, that cut off Moscow's financial transactions in the foreign markets.  

Image: AP