How a humanitarian transfer of North Korean POWs became a row between Seoul and Kyiv

Ukraine asked South Korea to keep the transfer of two North Korean prisoners of war secret from the start of their talks, South Korea's spy agency told lawmakers Wednesday, supporting Seoul's account in a dispute that has led it to summon Kyiv's top envoy and demand an apology.

The two governments agreed on confidentiality through "several channels," including a phone call between their foreign ministers and talks between South Korea's embassy in Kyiv and Ukraine's Foreign Ministry, the National Intelligence Service (NIS) said, according to lawmakers briefed behind closed doors.

Ukraine has not expressed regret or apologized "officially or unofficially," the agency said. Kyiv denies any such agreement.

The row pits two governments that have been on the same side since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

Analysts in both countries point to a gap in expectations as the source of the dispute. Kyiv likely expected something in return for the handover, while Seoul calls it a humanitarian matter "not tied to any other precondition or issue."

Who are the two soldiers, and what happened?

The two men, identified by the surnames Ri and Baek, were among an estimated 14,000 to 15,000 troops North Korea has sent to fight for Russia since 2024.

Ukrainian forces captured them in Russia's Kursk region in January 2025, the first North Korean soldiers taken alive in the war.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky made them public, posting their photos and interrogation video and offering to return them to North Korea in exchange for Ukrainians held by Russia. The two later said they wanted to go to South Korea, whose Constitution treats North Koreans as its citizens.

They arrived in mid-September. The NIS said it had confirmed several times that the men wanted to come to South Korea and that they had no major health problems.

Seoul said nothing until Sept. 23, when Zelensky announced the transfer at the United Nations General Assembly.

President Lee Jae Myung in an X post on Sept. 24  called the disclosure "deeply regrettable," saying Ukraine had breached a confidentiality agreement. Zelensky's office denied any agreement existed, and on Monday, Seoul summoned Ukraine's acting ambassador, Andrii Vieshkin.

Was there really an agreement to keep it secret?

Kyiv's position has narrowed: a senior Ukrainian official told the Financial Times that the foreign ministers discussed the transfer in June, but no secrecy agreement was reached at the presidential level. The NIS said it "does not know" whether the two presidents agreed.

Kwon Ki-chang, a former South Korean ambassador to Ukraine, told the Korea JoongAng Daily that understandings on a humanitarian case like this are normally reached orally, through the embassy and the host country's foreign ministry.

"Leaving a written record for a single case like this would actually be unusual," he said.

Nor could the two sides have read "confidential" differently, Kwon said. "Keeping it confidential means not informing the media and not announcing it publicly. It is a very commonsense agreement."

Why did Kyiv want secrecy, and why did it go public?

Ukraine asked first because publicity could hurt its prisoner exchanges with Russia and with third countries, the NIS said.

Seoul's presidential office has also said Kyiv worried about criticism at home for giving up a chance to trade the pair for Ukrainian prisoners.

Russia had offered to free thousands of Ukrainians for the pair, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said privately during a late-June visit to Seoul, according to a diplomatic source.

"From the standpoint of Ukrainians, turning down such an offer and sending the two North Koreans to South Korea makes no sense," Kwon said. "Because of that burden, I think [Kyiv] proposed keeping it confidential."

Nataliia Butyrska, an associate senior analyst at the New Europe Center, a Kyiv-based think tank, said Russia "even delayed prisoner exchanges for six months" trying to get the men back.

"Ukrainian society has generally been understanding of the decision to transfer the prisoners of war to South Korea, as South Korea is widely viewed as a natural partner for Ukraine," she told the Korea JoongAng Daily. "This was a voluntary step on Ukraine's part which, unfortunately, did not receive an adequate response from South Korea."

The NIS believes Zelensky went public in hopes of stirring South Korean support for sending Ukraine weapons and other aid, lawmakers said. NIS Director Lee Jong-seok told them Kyiv set no conditions and Seoul gave nothing in return. South Korea has sent Ukraine only humanitarian and nonlethal aid.

Kwon's reading centers on air defense, which he called Ukraine's most urgent need. Russian missiles and drones have pounded Kyiv and Odesa over the past six months, he said, and U.S. Patriot interceptors have run short after their heavy use in Washington's war with Iran, making South Korean systems "an excellent alternative."

"There is a considerable chance Ukraine expected some military support from us" when the transfer was agreed in principle, he said, while Seoul, mindful of its ties with Moscow, likely gave it little thought.

In that situation, Kwon said, going public made more sense for Kyiv — announcing the transfer at the UN highlighted North Korea's role in the war and Ukraine's need for more Western support, which "serves Ukraine's national interest."

Oleksandr Horin, Ukraine's ambassador to Seoul from 2017 to 2020, told Ukraine's Espreso TV on Tuesday that "we would all like to receive from South Korea the technological weapons they have," especially air defense, though he did not see the disclosure as a direct attempt to pressure Seoul.

In Butyrska's view, the disclosure was "apparently an attempt to draw attention to Russia's recruitment and involvement of soldiers from various countries in the war against Ukraine."

Ukraine holds prisoners from 47 countries, she said.

Why has Seoul reacted so strongly?

Seoul's tone hardened after Kyiv's denial, which contradicted Lee's public account.

"We have said several times that it was clearly agreed to be handled confidentially, and the president has also confirmed this," Foreign Ministry spokesperson Park Doo-soon said Tuesday.

At home, Lee has sought to ease tensions with Pyongyang and encouraged U.S.-North Korea talks ahead of U.S. President Donald Trump's expected trip to China for the APEC summit in November.

Jang Dong-hyeok, leader of the conservative People Power Party, has accused the government of hiding the transfer for Pyongyang's sake.

"If there is any reason to hide it, it is only Kim Jong-un's displeasure," Jang said.

Kwon, who believes Seoul's account that Kyiv broke an oral agreement, called the public demand for an apology "not a very good approach," suggesting it was partly aimed at the opposition. With Europe fully behind Ukraine, and South Korea hoping to sell arms in Europe and join Ukraine's postwar reconstruction, a diplomatic war of words with Kyiv "does not help us at all," he said.

Butyrska also said domestic politics "may have contributed" to Seoul's strong reaction, and that Zelensky's office most likely did not anticipate it.

"I would therefore be more inclined to view this episode as a communication miscalculation rather than as a deliberate move by President Zelensky," she said.

On the Ukrainian side, she said, domestic politics played no part in Zelensky's decision; with daily security concerns taking priority, Ukrainians "had not been particularly focused on the issue of the North Korean prisoners."

How is North Korea likely to respond?

North Korea had not commented publicly as of Wednesday.

"North Korea doesn't want to acknowledge these prisoners at all," said Cho Han-bum, a senior research fellow at the Korea Institute for National Unification. "[Pyongyang] has turned its troops' participation in the war into a heroic narrative and glorified those who blew themselves up. If it admits that these two came to South Korea of their own will, the whole narrative falls apart."

Even if the two men speak publicly, Pyongyang is likely to call it staged or coerced rather than acknowledge them, Cho said, though it may retaliate in other ways.

North Korea treats captured soldiers as traitors.

Those captured in the 1950-53 Korean War who later returned to the North were given the lowest social status, and many were punished, Cho said. He added the men's families have likely already been punished quietly, by being sent to a political prison camp or cut off entirely.

"If these two don't make public appearances, North Korea will let it pass quietly," he said. "The more you touch [the problem], the bigger it gets."

What happens next?

Kwon expects Kyiv to explain itself privately rather than apologize publicly, which would make it look like a wartime president admitting fault.

Butyrska said the dispute will have "a negative impact" on relations, which is "particularly unfortunate because Kyiv and Seoul had only recently begun developing a dialogue between their governments."

She hopes Ukraine's new ambassador can take up the post soon and rebuild trust. Ukraine's embassy in Seoul has had no ambassador for about a year. Kyiv's nominee, lawmaker Andrii Nikolaienko, awaits Seoul's approval, according to local media reports.

In a nightly video address on Monday, Zelensky said more than 8,000 North Korean troops are now in Russia and that "preparations are underway to deploy another 10,000," citing Ukrainian intelligence.

If more are captured and ask to come south, Cho said, the principle is clear: those who choose South Korea of their own free will should be accepted, and details kept out of public view.

Ukraine's embassy in Seoul declined to comment, and Ukraine's Foreign Ministry and presidential office did not respond to requests for comment.

BY SEO JI-EUN   [[email protected]]