South Korean President Yoon Suk Yul pledged on a surprise visit to Kiev to raise the value of humanitarian aid to Ukraine from $100 million last year to $150 million this year.
Suk Yul told a news conference with his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky in Kiev on Saturday that his country would provide Ukraine with non-lethal military aid, such as helmets and bulletproof vests.
South Korea has delivered safety equipment and humanitarian aid needed by Ukraine since May, such as mine detectors, he said.
For his part, Zelensky praised the South Korean president's visit, which is the first of its kind to his country, and said that their talks dealt with everything that allows people to live a normal and safe life.
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The surprise visit comes after the South Korean president attended a NATO summit in Lithuania and visited Poland last week, where he expressed solidarity with Ukraine against Russia.
According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, South Korea is a U.S. ally and the world's ninth-largest arms exporter, but Seoul is also concerned about Russia's influence in North Korea and resists Western pressure to help directly arm Ukraine.
He noted that his country would also cooperate with Kiev on some projects such as infrastructure construction, which could be supported by soft loans from Seoul.
Zelenskiy had asked Yoon to increase military support when they first met in May.
South Korea's defense ministry said it was considering exporting the munitions to the United States, but said parts of a media report that Seoul had agreed to send artillery shells to the United States for delivery to Ukraine were inaccurate.