South Korea Demands Apology From Ukraine After Zelenskyy Reveals Secret North Korean POW Transfer

South Korea has demanded an official explanation and apology from Ukraine after Volodymyr Zelenskyy revealed at the United Nations that two North Korean prisoners of war had been transferred to Seoul, triggering a diplomatic dispute over whether the move was supposed to remain secret.

Seoul says Ukraine agreed to keep the transfer confidential. Kyiv disputes that such an agreement existed, turning the fate of two North Korean soldiers into an increasingly bitter row between the two governments.

Zelenskyy Reveals North Korean POW Transfer

Zelenskyy disclosed the transfer during his address to the UN General Assembly in New York on 23 September.

'Recently, we sent two North Korean prisoners of war to the Republic of Korea,' he said, revealing publicly that the soldiers had been moved to South Korea after being captured in Russia.

The two men were captured by Ukrainian forces in Russia's Kursk region in January 2025 after being deployed alongside thousands of North Korean troops supporting Moscow's war against Ukraine. They had expressed a desire to come to South Korea rather than return to North Korea.

Zelenskyy also revealed a disturbing detail about their capture, saying the soldiers were 'not easy to capture alive'. He said one had tried to kill himself after realising he was about to be taken prisoner.

Seoul Says Kyiv Broke Its Word

The disclosure quickly triggered a reaction from President Lee Jae Myung.

Lee said Seoul and Kyiv had agreed not to make the North Korean POW transfer public because of its potential impact on diplomacy, national security and the security situation on the Korean Peninsula.

'It was appropriate in every aspect not to disclose, considering many problems it may cause when disclosed, and (we) had agreed to do so,' Lee wrote on X. He later said he did not know the reasons for the disclosure but regretted it.

Seong Ghi-hong, senior presidential secretary for public relations, later said Ukraine had repeatedly discussed the transfer with Seoul and had requested secrecy.

According to Seoul, Kyiv had been concerned that announcing the move could trigger criticism that Ukraine had surrendered an opportunity to exchange the soldiers for Ukrainian POWs held by Russia. Seoul also cited the safety of the prisoners and their families.

Ukraine Disputes the Secret Deal

The dispute became even more contentious when Ukraine rejected Seoul's account.

Dmytro Lytvyn, a communications adviser to Zelenskyy, denied that Kyiv had agreed to keep the transfer secret.

'There was no such agreement. That is not true,' Lytvyn wrote in response to a post by Oksana Torop, a media adviser to Ukraine's ambassador to the UK who had also said there was a confidentiality agreement. Lytvyn argued that concealing where prisoners were being sent would itself have been wrong.

The timing has added another twist. A senior South Korean presidential official said Seoul had been warned in advance that Zelenskyy was likely to mention the POWs during his UN speech, although Kyiv had not clearly explained how he would refer to them. Seoul says it had still told Ukraine that the transfer itself should not be disclosed.

That leaves the central dispute sharply defined: Seoul says there was an agreement to keep the transfer confidential, while Kyiv says there was not.

Seoul Escalates Diplomatic Pressure

On 27 September, Seong accused Ukraine of making a unilateral disclosure and then falsely denying the existence of a non-disclosure agreement.

He said the denial had seriously damaged trust between the two governments and warned that Seoul was considering additional measures if necessary.

South Korea's demand for an apology now puts the dispute beyond a disagreement over public messaging. Seoul says the handling of the transfer itself has damaged bilateral relations, while Ukraine maintains that it did not violate a confidentiality pact.

Why the Two POWs Matter

The North Korean prisoners had already become a sensitive diplomatic issue months before their transfer.

In July, Lee and Zelenskyy discussed the status of North Korean soldiers captured by Ukraine at the NATO summit in Ankara. Seoul and Kyiv had also been working through diplomatic channels on the fate of the POWs, who had expressed a wish to come to South Korea.

The case sits at the intersection of the Russia-Ukraine war, North Korea's military support for Moscow and South Korea's efforts to manage its own security relationship with Pyongyang.

For now, the two soldiers are in South Korea.

The diplomatic battle is over what happened before the world was told they had arrived.