More than 1,400 Israelians and and over 11,000 Palestanians have been killed amid the fight between Israel and Hamas. Many nations, including the United States, United Kingdom, France, Norway, Austria, India, have expressed support for Israel, some through the provision of military and humanitarian aid. 

Where do South Koreans stand? 

During the start of the war, South Korea’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs condemned Hamas’ attacks and expressed concerns for civilian casualties. Afterward, Seoul issued a travel advisory for Israel to urge native Koreans to leave via a third country if possible. President Yoon Suk-Yeol also vowed to insulate the nation from potential economic aftershocks by expanding its crude oil reserves. 

South Korea is cautious about announcing support for either country as South Korea’s Foreign Trade Act forbids the government from exporting weapons to countries where they will be used in armed conflicts unless such arms shipments receive National Assembly approval.

North Korea, in contrast, has explicitly denounced Israel, stating that they are receiving the “consequence of Israel’s ceaseless criminal actions” against Palestine. It is even suspected that one of the weapons by the Hamas fighters were supplied from North Korea, based on a video shared by the X account War Noir. The weapon was cited to be a F-7 high-explosive fragmentation rocket manufactured from North Korea, although this remains to be verified. 

With the drastically different methods that South and North Korea are taking to address the war, it is still unclear how future involvement in the war will unfold.   

“This conflict has been brewing for a hundred years, so nobody wants to get involved because this situation cannot be fixed,” said Steve Nave, world history teacher. “This is worse than Ukraine and Russia.”