South Korea has labeled a trove of leaked documents allegedly detailing Ukraine’s war effort as fake.
The classified intelligence files contain claims that the US is spying on the South Korean government and other allies.
But President Yoon Suk Yeol’s office said the idea that US spies had been following senior officials in Seoul was “an absurd false suspicion.”
The South Korean president said US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin already agrees with his counterpart Lee Jong-Sup that “a significant number of the documents in question have been fabricated.”
South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol said U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin agreed with his agency’s assessment that many of the documents are fake.
This document appears to reflect the state of Ukraine’s air defenses in February and May, when they are expected to be severely depleted
South Korea’s deputy national security adviser, Kim Tae-hyo, added: “The two countries have the same assessment that much of the publicly disclosed information has changed.”
He gave no further details and Pentagon officials have not yet read the call.
But Britain’s Defense Ministry appeared to support Seoul’s claims, saying the leaks had “shown a serious degree of inaccuracy.”
“Readers should be careful about accepting allegations that may spread disinformation,” a British government spokesman said.
Some files reportedly show concern among top South Korean national security officials that weapons manufactured by their country could eventually be used in Ukraine.
Despite pressure from the US, South Korea is among the world’s largest arms exporters, but has not approved the sale or donation of weapons to Kiev’s armed forces.
An intercepted memo outlined how two senior presidential advisers discussed how to deal with US pressure to help arm the Ukrainian military.
An aide is said to have said grenades could be sent to Poland to prevent him appearing to have caved in to the US or violate longstanding South Korean policies.
Officials in South Korea have publicly pointed to national laws that prohibit them from sending weapons directly to war zones.
In addition to detailing weapons and training for Ukraine, the papers also cover China, the Middle East and Africa, as well as America’s relationship with Israel.
Because according to the leaked documents, Ukraine’s stockpile is rapidly depleting, which in turn opens a window for Russian planes to attack
The intelligence breach could have a drastic impact on the conflict landscape in Ukraine. Biden, left, is pictured meeting Ukrainian President Zelensky in February 2023
Justice Department investigators have opened a criminal investigation into the possible identity of the leaker.
They have refused to rule out Russia being behind the embarrassing security breach, but it is widely believed that a US source helped publish the documents online.
It is the largest intelligence leak since the WikiLeaks case in 2013, when more than 700,000 documents, videos and diplomatic cables appeared on the self-proclaimed transparency platform.
While the public backlash is new, dozens of photos of the documents have been circulating on social media platforms and messaging services, including Twitter, Telegram and Discord, for several weeks now.
On Monday, the National Security Council’s Coordinator for Strategic Communications, John Kirby, admitted that some files had been tampered with.
“We are still working on the validity of all the documents that we know are there,” he said.
Oleksiy Danilov, one of Ukraine’s top defense officials, tried to play down the leak and the risk to their troops on the battlefield.
“We don’t care about the opinions of people who have nothing to do with this,” said the head of the country’s national security and defense council.
“The circle of people who have information is extremely limited,” he added.