South Korea has demanded an official apology and explanation from Ukraine after accusing Kyiv of disclosing the transfer of two North Korean prisoners of war to Seoul. Seong Ghi-hong, senior presidential secretary for public relations, said in a statement on Sunday that the president’s office expressed “strong regret over Ukraine’s unilateral disclosure and its subsequent false announcement that there had not been a non-disclosure agreement”. He said Ukraine had repeatedly discussed the prisoners’ transfer with Seoul through various channels and had requested secrecy.
However, Kyiv has said no secrecy agreement existed. Speaking at the annual United Nations General Assembly last week, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Kyiv had transferred two captured North Korean soldiers to South Korea after they were caught fighting for Russia in the Kursk region. Ukraine seized large parts of the Russian border region in August 2024 but has since lost most of the territory.
One of them, when he realised he was going to be taken prisoner, tried to kill himself, and he was shocked that fate did not let him die,” Zelenskyy said in his speech. He also condemned North Korea’s deployment of troops to support Moscow, saying: “This is madness too. Why should Koreans give their lives in a war against Ukraine? [North Korean leader] Kim Jong Un uses them like currency, and he gets something in return.” Zelenskyy said at the time that he would hand the captured soldiers over to Kim if he could facilitate their exchange for Ukrainians held captive in Russia.
However, human rights groups had urged him to send them to South Korea, referring to possible risks of punishment that the soldiers faced. South Korean media also reported that the two captured soldiers had wanted to defect to Seoul. Ukraine captured the two North Koreans in January 2025.
They became the first North Korean soldiers to be captured alive since Pyongyang began in 2024 to aid Moscow’s war efforts against Ukraine. North Korea is estimated to have deployed thousands of soldiers to support Russia’s war against Ukraine as part of a mutual defence treaty. South Korea previously declined to confirm the soldiers’ arrival, citing concerns about their safety and that of their family members still in North Korea.
But Zelenskyy’s decision to announce the transfer surprised South Korea’s government. In a post on X, President Lee Jae Myung said the issue of repatriating North Korean prisoners of war was a “highly sensitive agenda”. South Korea is technically still at war with North Korea because the two opponents in the 1950-1953 Korean War signed an armistice in 1953 and not a peace treaty.
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