SEOUL/JERUSALEM — South Korea ordered all citizens in Israel to leave immediately on Monday, issuing its highest-level travel advisory for Israeli territory, as a diplomatic crisis triggered by Seoul’s alleged covert arms shipments to Ukraine spiralled into the most serious bilateral rupture between the two countries in decades.
The foreign ministry in Seoul confirmed it had activated emergency consular protocols after Israel expelled the South Korean ambassador and froze a pending $3.2 billion defence procurement contract in retaliation for what Tel Aviv called “an act of strategic betrayal.” South Korea’s defence acquisition programme office said it had suspended all technology-sharing agreements with Israeli defence firms pending an urgent review.
The dispute began when classified intelligence documents leaked on Sunday appeared to show that South Korea had secretly supplied 50,000 rounds of 155mm artillery ammunition and 120 anti-tank missile systems to Ukraine through a third-country intermediary — in direct violation of Seoul’s stated policy of providing only non-lethal aid. Israeli officials said the shipments had been used by Ukrainian forces against Russian positions in Zaporizhzhia.
“This is a fundamental breach of trust between democracies that share strategic interests,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said in a statement. “South Korea chose Ukraine over a 30-year defence partnership, and there are consequences.” Officials briefed on the matter told Reuters that Jerusalem was considering restricting Israeli intelligence-sharing with Seoul on North Korean nuclear activities.
South Korea’s foreign minister, Cho Tae-yong, convened an emergency session of the National Security Council and acknowledged the shipments had taken place but said they had been approved at the highest levels of government as part of “a sovereign decision to support a rules-based international order.” He said South Korea had informed Washington before the transfers but had not informed Israel.
The United States declined to comment directly but a State Department spokesperson said Washington remained committed to “strong trilateral security cooperation in the Indo-Pacific and Middle East.”
The aborted defence deal included the purchase of Israel’s Arrow 3 missile defence system and advanced surveillance drones — a cornerstone of South Korea’s plans to strengthen its missile defence architecture against North Korean threats. Industry analysts said Seoul would now accelerate domestic alternatives and had begun exploratory talks with France and the United Arab Emirates.
South Korea’s president Lee Jae-myung faces a domestic political backlash. The main opposition People Power Party called for an emergency parliamentary inquiry and accused the government of deceiving the public about its Ukraine policy.
North Korea’s state media welcomed the Israeli retaliation as “poetic justice for Seoul’s hypocrisy.” Russian foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova called the shipments “another example of Western double standards.”
The Korean Peninsula remains technically in a state of war and analysts said the crisis could complicate intelligence-sharing on North Korean ballistic missile activities, some of which depend on Israeli satellite data.
The South Korean foreign ministry said its embassy in Tel Aviv would operate with minimal staff and urged all nationals to depart within 72 hours. Several commercial flights from Ben Gurion Airport to Incheon were fully booked by Monday afternoon.
Written by Kenji Tanaka, Asia Pacific Correspondent