Zelensky says Seoul requested North Korean POWs, stays mum on secrecy agreement

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky attributed Kyiv's handover of two North Korean prisoners of war to a request from Seoul but did not address South Korea's demand for an apology over his disclosure of the transfer.

"South Korea asked us to give them North Korean soldiers," Zelensky told reporters Sunday in Kyiv, according to Reuters. "By the way, according to their constitution, they are their citizens [...] so we gave them these two guys."

The remarks were Zelensky's first on the matter since he revealed the transfer in his speech at the United Nations General Assembly in New York on Sept. 23.

Ukrainian forces captured the two soldiers, who had been fighting for Russia, in Russia's Kursk region in January 2025.

"I do not know what circumstances Ukraine had for breaking the confidentiality agreement and going public, but it is very disappointing," South Korean President Lee Jae Myung wrote on X on Sept. 24, in what was then a mild expression of regret.

Dmytro Lytvyn, Zelensky's communications adviser, then denied that the two sides had agreed to keep the transfer confidential, and the dispute flared.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha tried to calm it on Thursday. "I would not like to call this an incident," Sybiha told journalists at an event, Reuters reported, citing Ukrainian media. "Let's say, it's a diplomatic misunderstanding." Sybiha also expressed hope that the matter would be resolved soon.

Lee hit back on Friday in another X post, which shared a news report on Sybiha's remarks.

"Ukraine asked for confidentiality on the repatriation of the North Korean prisoners, and we agreed to it, but it went public unilaterally," Lee wrote. "We expressed our disappointment as politely as possible, only for [Ukraine] to deny that any agreement had been reached and effectively make [South Korea's] leader a liar."

"When we asked it to acknowledge the agreement and apologize, it instead talked of an imminent military clash between the two Koreas. I express serious regret to Ukraine, which is trying to bring about a war on the Korean Peninsula."

"If [Ukraine] keeps refusing to acknowledge the facts and apologize publicly, we will take further measures. This is a matter of the dignity of the South Korean people and the country, and it cannot be overlooked."

Lee's unusually blunt language sharply escalated the diplomatic dispute between the two countries.

Zelensky provided more detail about North Korean troops in interviews with Ukrainian media, including the public broadcaster Suspilne. The captured soldiers had given Ukraine information that differed from what it had before, he said, because they were not among the North Korean troops who first arrived in Russia.

These soldiers had received training and absorbed combat experience passed on to them, including how to operate drones and counter electronic warfare systems, Zelensky said. He called the acquisition of such practical knowledge and combat experience very dangerous.

Zelensky said Ukraine had shared information on the North Korean troops with Japan. He described Japan as a great country with outstanding technology but little experience of modern warfare, a gap he called very dangerous.

If Russia trains 50,000 North Korean troops to fight, that knowledge will be shared with hundreds of thousands of North Korean soldiers, Zelensky said. Cooperation between Ukraine and Japan is very important in that respect and serves both sides' interests, he added.

Zelensky also said he believed Russia had shared jet-powered drone technology with North Korea.

"Yes, of course," Zelensky replied when reporters asked whether Russia might have passed the technology to Pyongyang. "They [Russia] are sharing with North Korea all the technologies. I don't know about the ballistic and et cetera, but I think, yes, because North Korea helped them with missiles."

BY CHO MUN-GYU [[email protected]]