WASHINGTON — South Korea is demanding an apology from Ukraine after President Volodymyr Zelensky publicly described the capture of North Korean soldiers fighting alongside Russian forces.
In an address to the United Nations General Assembly last week, Zelensky said Ukraine had transferred two captured North Korean soldiers to South Korea in January 2025, a disclosure that angered Seoul.
“The presidential office expresses strong regret over Ukraine’s unilateral disclosure and its subsequent false announcement that there had not been a non-disclosure agreement,” Seong Ghi-hong, a spokesperson for South Korean President Lee Jae-myung, said Sunday.
An estimated 15,000 to 20,000 North Korean troops have been deployed to the battlefield to support Russian President Vladimir Putin’s forces.
“These guys are not easy to capture alive. One of them, when he realized he was going to be taken prisoner, tried to kill himself, and he was shocked that fate did not let him die,” Zelensky said during his Sept. 23 address.
“This is madness too. Why should Koreans give their lives in a war against Ukraine? [North Korean dictator] Kim Jong Un uses them like currency, and he gets something in return,” the Ukrainian president said, referring to the economic and humanitarian assistance North Korea has received from Russia in exchange for military support.
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Lee, who is seeking an agreement with North Korea to abandon its nuclear weapons program in exchange for sanctions relief, also criticized Zelensky’s decision to reveal the information.
“The issue of repatriating North Korean prisoners of war is a highly sensitive agenda that significantly impacts diplomacy, national security, and the situation on the Korean Peninsula,” Lee wrote on social media Thursday, according to a translation.
Lee accused Zelensky of publicizing the potential “repatriation to the whole world with banging bells and dancing to show off their achievements—without caring about the state of inter-Korean relations.”
“I do not know the reasons behind the Ukrainian side’s decision to disclose the information in violation of the non-disclosure agreement, but it is deeply regrettable,” he added.
South Korea had urged Ukraine not to send the North Korean prisoners back to their homeland, where they would likely face severe persecution for having been captured alive.
Zelensky has said Russia is seeking an additional 30,000 North Korean troops to support its more-than-four-year invasion of Ukraine.
Since the 1953 armistice that halted the Korean War, more than 34,000 North Koreans have defected to the South.
