Seoul’s ambassador to Ukraine recalled as rift over disclosure of North Korean POWs persists

South Korea's ambassador to Ukraine returned home Saturday after being recalled in protest of Kyiv's disclosure of the transfer of North Korean prisoners of war (POW) to Seoul, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said.

Ambassador Park Ki-chang arrived two days after the Foreign Ministry announced the recall in response to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky's disclosure of the transfer and Kyiv's subsequent denial that it had agreed with Seoul to keep the matter confidential.

The two North Korean soldiers were captured in January of last year while fighting for Russia in the Kursk region and arrived in South Korea in mid-September, according to officials here.

Seoul has said a nondisclosure agreement was reached with Kyiv at Ukraine's request to protect the soldiers and their families, who remain in North Korea, and that Zelensky breached the agreement when he revealed the transfer during an address to the United Nations General Assembly in New York last month.

Kyiv has said there was no such agreement.

It is rare for the government to recall an ambassador as a form of protest, and the last time South Korea did so was in 2008, when it recalled its envoy to Japan.

"We hope that various issues between the two countries will be resolved smoothly, and we will continue consultations with the Ukrainian side to that end," the Foreign Ministry said Thursday while announcing the recall.

Yonhap