Canadian foreign affairs minister Mélanie Joly and defence minister Bill Blair hosted their South Korean counterparts in Ottawa last Friday for the countries’ first-ever ‘2+2’ meeting, which saw Ottawa and Seoul scale up security, military, and diplomatic exchanges, promote a “common vision” for the Indo-Pacific, and denounce the recent deployment of up to 12,000 North Korean troops to Russia.
The joint statement from the inaugural Canada-ROK Foreign and Defence Ministerial Meeting cast Canada and South Korea as clear-eyed “global partners” — in line with Seoul’s push to be recognized as a ‘global pivotal state’ — seized by challenges “in the Indo-Pacific and beyond” and committed to “reinforcing global stability.”
In the joint missive, the two sides labelled North Korea’s deployment of an estimated 12,000 military personnel to Russia as “a significant escalation with dangerous implications for security ... in Europe and the Indo-Pacific.” Both sides are also closely monitoring Russia’s “possible provision of sensitive technology” to bolster North Korea’s weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missile programs.
Canada and South Korea agreed to set up cyber consultations, ratchet up talks between their Indo-Pacific envoys, and expedite negotiations on an agreement regarding the protection of classified military information.
The ‘2+2’ meeting builds on Blair’s visit to South Korea in September and Joly’s trip to the country in July.
Canada's ‘plus one’ in Kananaskis
The Canadian readout referenced “discussions that will help expand collaboration in the years ahead, including during Canada’s G7 Presidency [in 2025],” with the summit set to take place in Kananaskis, Alberta.
South Korea was not invited to the G7 summit in 2022 or 2024, although it received an invitation from host Japan in 2023. (Chinese state media taunted South Korea over its supposed “snub” this year.) This week, a prominent Korean member of the Canada-Korea Forum — a ‘track-1.5’ dialogue held, this year, in Montreal — called on the G7 to admit South Korea as a member.
Before coming to Canada, the South Korean delegation visited Washington, D.C., where the parties “focused intensely ... on the relationship between [North Korea] and Russia,” according to U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken. Over the weekend, following North Korea’s ICBM test on October 31, the U.S. flew a long-range B-1B bomber alongside eight South Korean and Japanese fighter jets.
From Korea to Kursk
A team of South Korean military observers landed in Ukraine recently to monitor the North Korean soldiers shipped halfway around the world to fight for Moscow.
A Ukrainian official said Tuesday that North Koreans had been, for the first time, shelled in Russia’s Kursk region, near the Ukrainian border.
The ominous troop transfer further ‘internationalizes’ the Russia-Ukraine war, fusing together European and Asian security interests and anxieties, and threatens to push South Korea, long committed to non-lethal and humanitarian aid, into the conflict.
In a joint statement on Tuesday, 10 countries including Canada and South Korea expressed “grave concerns” regarding the deployment of North Korean soldiers to Russia, and said they were working on “a co-ordinated response.”
Kyiv is trying to persuade the swell of new soldiers to surrender in Korean-language videos published to YouTube, Telegram, and X. The videos tell North Koreans that they don’t have to “meaninglessly die on the land of another country,” and promise them food, medical care, and shelter if they capitulate.
