EditSeoul rebukes Zelenskyy after UN speech reveals secret transfer of North Korean POWs
The episode unfolds as Seoul has been trying to manage a delicate relationship with North Korea while supporting Ukraine with non-lethal aid
South Korean President Lee Jae-myung has publicly criticized Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy for announcing, during his address to the UN General Assembly on 23 September, that Ukraine had transferred two captured North Korean soldiers to South Korea.
The announcement broke what Seoul says was an agreed non-disclosure arrangement. Lee called the disclosure “deeply regrettable” and a violation of confidentiality on an issue that could affect diplomacy, national security, and stability on the Korean Peninsula.
What Zelenskyy said
In his speech to the 81st UN General Assembly, Zelenskyy stated: “Recently, we sent two North Korean prisoners of war to the Republic of Korea.” He added that the men “are not easy to capture alive” and that one of them “tried to kill himself” when he realized he would be taken prisoner. Zelenskyy used the episode to criticize North Korea for sending troops to fight for Russia, saying Kim Jong Un treats them “like currency.”
The two soldiers were captured by Ukrainian forces in Russia’s Kursk region in January 2025. They were the first known North Korean troops taken alive after Pyongyang began deploying thousands of soldiers to support Russia’s war. Both later expressed a desire to go to South Korea rather than be returned to the North.
The agreement that was broken
In July 2026, Lee and Zelenskyy met on the sidelines of a NATO summit in Ankara and agreed that the fate of the prisoners should be handled on humanitarian grounds, respecting their wishes and international law. Seoul says the two sides also agreed to keep the actual transfer confidential because publicizing it risked complicating inter-Korean relations and endangering people involved.
A South Korean presidential official later said Ukraine had given Seoul vague prior notice that Zelenskyy might mention the prisoners in his UN speech, but Seoul had asked that the transfer itself not be disclosed. Ukraine proceeded anyway.
Ukraine’s response
The Ukrainian presidential office said the transfer was arranged through direct talks with Seoul and that Zelenskyy had only announced the fact of the handover, not operational details such as routes, timing, or locations. An aide described Ukraine as “an open country” and said it would have been strange to conceal a completed transfer entirely.
Political fallout in Seoul
South Korea’s conservative opposition attacked Lee’s government for remaining silent and allowing a foreign leader to reveal the prisoners’ arrival. Lee pushed back, arguing that publicizing the transfer for political gain would have been reckless. In his X post he wrote that people who harm lives and national security for petty advantage are called “murderers or traitors,” language aimed mainly at domestic critics who wanted the government to take credit for the operation.
The episode has exposed a clear disagreement between Kyiv and Seoul over how far confidentiality should extend once the prisoners were already in South Korea. It also arrives as Lee’s administration has been trying to manage a delicate relationship with North Korea while supporting Ukraine with non-lethal aid.
Kyiv has repeatedly asked Seoul for air-defence systems and been turned down. In August 2026 Zelenskyy publicly requested South Korean Cheongung-II (KM-SAM II) batteries, citing depleted interceptor stocks and the growing North Korean presence on the Russian side. South Korea refused. Officials cited domestic export rules that bar lethal weapons sales to countries in active war and restated that assistance would remain humanitarian and non-lethal. The same policy has blocked earlier Ukrainian requests for the same systems. The refusal left a lingering imbalance: Ukraine handed Seoul two high-value North Korean prisoners after months of quiet diplomacy, while Seoul declined to supply the air defences Kyiv said it most needed.
Caption: South Korean President Lee Jae Myung speaks during a meeting with South Korean residents in Mexico while on a state visit in Mexico City, Mexico, 24 September 2026. EPA/YONHAP
Updated: September 25, 2026 - 11:53
