South Korea demands apology from Ukraine over disclosure of North Korean prisoners of war
South Korea has demanded an official apology and explanation from Ukraine after accusing Kyiv of publicly disclosing the transfer of two North Korean prisoners of war to Seoul. The dispute centres on whether the two governments had agreed to keep the handover confidential. Seoul says Ukraine broke that understanding by announcing the transfer.
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A senior presidential secretary in Seoul said the president's office expressed strong regret over what it described as Ukraine's unilateral disclosure and its later claim that no nondisclosure agreement existed. He said Ukraine had repeatedly discussed the transfer through various channels and had asked for secrecy. Kyiv has rejected that account and says no secrecy agreement was in place.
The prisoners were captured by Ukraine in January 2025 after being taken alive in the Kursk region, where Ukrainian officials said they had been fighting for Russia. They were the first North Korean soldiers captured alive since Pyongyang began supporting Moscow's war effort in 2024. South Korean media have reported that the two men wanted to defect to South Korea, while human rights groups had urged that they be sent there because of possible punishment if returned to North Korea.
The row has added a diplomatic layer to an already sensitive issue involving North Korea's military support for Russia. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said last week at the United Nations General Assembly that Kyiv had transferred the two soldiers to South Korea. He also criticised North Korea's deployment of troops to support Moscow, saying the North Korean leader was using them like currency in exchange for something else.
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The case matters because it touches on prisoner handling, intelligence sensitivity and the competing interests of three states involved in the wider war. Ukraine has said it seized large parts of the Russian border region of Kursk in August 2024, although it has since lost most of that territory. North Korea is estimated to have deployed thousands of soldiers to support Russia, making the fate of captured North Korean troops a politically charged issue for both Seoul and Kyiv.
What remains unclear is whether any formal secrecy arrangement was ever signed, and how the two governments documented their discussions before the transfer. South Korea has asked for an apology and explanation, but neither side has indicated that the dispute has been resolved. The next point to watch is whether the disagreement affects future coordination between Seoul and Kyiv on the handling of North Korean prisoners or other wartime issues.
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