South Korean President Criticizes Ukraine Over Disclosure of North Korean POW Transfer

South Korean President Lee Jae-myung said that Ukraine violated a confidentiality agreement by publicly announcing the transfer of two North Korean prisoners of war to Seoul. The Office of the President of Ukraine, for its part, emphasized that it only disclosed the fact of the transfer itself, not the details of the operation.

As Yonhap reports, Lee Jae-myung expressed regret over the Ukrainian side's decision to make the information public. According to him, Kyiv and Seoul agreed to conduct the transfer confidentially, as disclosure could have created a number of problems.

The President of South Korea called the issue particularly sensitive for diplomacy and national security, as well as for the situation on the Korean Peninsula. In his post on X, he noted that he does not know the reasons why the Ukrainian side decided to announce the transfer publicly.

Meanwhile, the Office of the President of Ukraine, in a response to Yonhap's inquiry, presented the situation differently. Kyiv stated that it only reported the very fact of transferring two North Koreans to South Korea, without disclosing the details of the process. The Ukrainian side added that it would be strange to completely keep the fact of the transfer secret.

Earlier, the South Korean government refused to confirm the arrival of the prisoners of war, citing, among other things, possible risks to their safety and the safety of their family members in the DPRK. Prior to that, Seoul and Kyiv held consultations on the future of the soldiers after they expressed a desire to move to South Korea.

President Volodymyr Zelensky announced the transfer of two DPRK soldiers during a speech at the UN General Assembly on September 23. Ukrainian forces captured both North Koreans in Russia's Kursk region in January 2025.

Sources: Yonhap, The Korea Times, Lee Jae-myung