Hendra Wijaya
South Korea's presidential office has voiced "strong regret" over what it describes as Ukraine's unilateral disclosure of a sensitive prisoner transfer and its subsequent denial that a confidentiality agreement ever existed, in a rare public spat between two governments that have broadly aligned against Russia's war in Ukraine. The dispute centres on the handover of two North Korean soldiers captured while fighting for Moscow, a transfer that Seoul says was supposed to remain secret to protect the men from reprisals.
According to South Korea's Yonhap news agency, senior presidential secretary for public relations Seong Ghi-hong issued a statement on Sunday criticising Kyiv for revealing the arrangement and then claiming no non-disclosure agreement had been in place. The presidential office framed the agreement as a humanitarian safeguard rather than a diplomatic formality, saying it was designed to shield the former prisoners from dangers they could face if their whereabouts became public, consistent with international law and humanitarian principles.
The controversy erupted after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told the United Nations General Assembly last week that his country had transferred the two North Korean prisoners of war to South Korea. In that address, Zelenskyy described the difficulty of capturing North Korean soldiers alive, recounting that one of the men attempted to take his own life upon realising he was about to be taken captive and was stunned that he survived.
Seoul's account differs sharply from Kyiv's on the question of secrecy. Ukraine's presidential office said it had announced the transfer without detailing the process, arguing that keeping the entire operation confidential would have been strange, according to Yonhap. Ukrainian media outlets, also cited by Yonhap, quoted a presidential source as denying that any confidentiality agreement with Seoul existed.
South Korea's presidential office characterised that denial as false and warned that it "seriously hampers" trust between the two countries while disrupting bilateral friendship. Seong added that the government is weighing additional measures if necessary, signalling that Seoul may escalate the matter diplomatically rather than let it fade.
The two soldiers were captured by Ukrainian forces in Russia's Kursk region in January 2025, according to the source account. Their capture was notable because mounting evidence, including intelligence reports and testimony from defectors, indicates that North Korean troops deployed to Russia have often resorted to self-detonation or other forms of suicide rather than allow themselves to be taken alive. Zelenskyy referenced that pattern directly in his UN remarks, underscoring how unusual it was for the two men to be captured.
South Korean media have reported that the captured soldiers expressed a desire to defect to South Korea. That detail matters because the legal and humanitarian status of North Korean prisoners is fraught: Pyongyang is unlikely to acknowledge them, and Seoul generally considers North Koreans to be potential citizens under its constitution, creating a pathway for resettlement if the men choose it.
The prisoner issue has been a recurring topic in South Korea-Ukraine diplomacy. It featured prominently during the NATO summit in Ankara, Turkiye, where South Korean President Lee Jae Myung met Zelenskyy in July. Senior presidential spokesperson Kang Yu-jung said afterward that both leaders agreed to resolve the status of North Korean POWs in accordance with international law. That understanding built on an earlier agreement reached during a South Korea-Ukraine foreign ministers' meeting in March, when both nations pledged to cooperate on the POW question.
The timing of the transfer is sensitive for Seoul. South Korea has backed efforts to revive dialogue with North Korea, while United States President Donald Trump has renewed his willingness to engage Pyongyang. A public spat with Kyiv over North Korean soldiers risks complicating Seoul's delicate balancing act between supporting Ukraine, managing its alliance with Washington and keeping channels open to Pyongyang.
The scale of North Korea's involvement in the war adds context to why the two prisoners matter disproportionately. According to South Korean intelligence, Pyongyang has deployed an estimated 14,000 to 15,000 soldiers to support Russia since 2024, primarily in the Kursk border region. South Korean, Ukrainian and Western officials say those forces have suffered heavy casualties, with more than 6,000 North Korean soldiers killed in the fighting.
For Kyiv, the transfer was a humanitarian and diplomatic gesture worth publicising, particularly at the UN General Assembly, where Zelenskyy has sought to sustain international attention on the war. For Seoul, however, the priority was discretion, given the risks to the prisoners and the sensitivity of any arrangement involving North Korean personnel.
The episode now tests how the two governments manage a disagreement between partners who otherwise share a common adversary. Seoul has stopped short of announcing concrete retaliation, but its language about additional measures leaves room for further diplomatic friction. Whether the dispute remains a contained spat or develops into a broader rupture may depend on whether the two sides can reconcile their competing accounts of what was agreed, and on whether the two former prisoners' wish to remain in South Korea proceeds without further public controversy.
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