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Ukraine reluctant to send North Korean POWs to South, says unification minister

Published: 25 Sep. 2025, 14:32 Updated: 25 Sep. 2025, 18:56

SEO JI-EUN
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Unification Minister Chung Dong-young speaks during a debate at Camp Greaves, a former U.S. military camp near the Demilitarized Zone that separates the two Koreas, in the South Korean border city of Paju on Sept. 19, to mark the seventh anniversary of the issuance in Pyongyang of a joint inter-Korean declaration in 2018 that called for the reduction of tensions and the prevention of accidental armed clashes, among other things. [YONHAP]

Ukraine is hesitant to transfer two North Korean prisoners of war to South Korea, Unification Minister Chung Dong-young said Thursday.

Speaking at a press conference at the government complex in Seoul, Chung said he was told that the Ukrainian government was reluctant to send the prisoners to the South.

Neither he nor the Ministry of Unification provided further details, and Chung himself conceded that he had “not yet grasped the full details,"

The matter surfaced earlier this year when two North Korean soldiers were taken prisoner by Ukrainian forces while fighting alongside Russian troops.

Human rights groups have urged Kyiv not to repatriate the men to the North, warning of likely persecution or even execution if they are sent back. Seoul has repeatedly stated its position that any North Korean prisoners of war who refuse repatriation will be accepted by South Korea.

North Koreans are considered South Korean citizens under the South's constitution.

Dmytro Ponomarenko, Ukraine’s ambassador to Seoul, addressed the question in a media interview in February, saying that if the captured soldiers refuse to return to the North, Ukraine is “open for a dialogue with international partners, particularly the Republic of Korea, regarding the possibilities of their transfer to third countries.”

Turning to nuclear concerns, Chung warned that “even as we speak, centrifuges are spinning at four sites in North Korea,” estimating that Pyongyang’s stockpile of weapons-grade uranium could be as high as "2,000 kilograms."

Because North Korea may operate undisclosed enrichment facilities, the precise figure is difficult to verify. Following the briefing, the Unification Ministry clarified that the minister had cited estimates from experts, including the Federation of American Scientists (FAS), rather than relying on intelligence agencies.

Chung dismissed the idea that sanctions alone could force the North to abandon its program, insisting that only a breakthrough at the summit level between Washington and Pyongyang could produce meaningful progress.

On inter-Korean relations, the minister reaffirmed his view that the two Koreas exist in a "two-state" reality, though he stressed that this does not imply permanent division.

Citing surveys showing that 50 to 60 percent of South Koreans already regard the North as a state, Chung said recognizing this reality was “pragmatic and flexible” and “a temporary acknowledgment of statehood within a special relationship on the path toward unification.”

Chung has recently promoted what he calls a “peaceful two-state theory,” rejecting criticism that it amounts to giving up on unification.

His remarks also echo the Lee Jae Myung administration’s policy of negotiating a new inter-Korean Basic Agreement, modeled on the 1972 Basic Treaty between East and West Germany — which recognized the other as an equal state and committed both sides to a system of peaceful coexistence — as outlined in the administration's five-year policy plan.

BY SEO JI-EUN [[email protected]]