Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Wednesday at the United Nations General Assembly that Kyiv “recently sent two North Korean prisoners of war to the Republic of Korea,” publicly confirming a transfer Seoul had handled quietly for months; South Korea’s foreign ministry would not verify arrival or routes, People Power Party lawmaker Yu Yong-weon said the soldiers reached the country three or four days earlier, and Foreign Minister Cho Hyun met Ukrainian counterpart Andrii Sybiha in New York without mentioning the POWs in the official readout.
Zelenskyy’s UN disclosure
Zelenskyy offered vivid detail absent from Korean government statements. He said one soldier tried to kill himself when capture became inevitable and was “shocked” to survive, and he accused North Korean leader Kim Jong Un of trading troops for Russian military technology. Ukraine’s military seized the pair in Russia’s Kursk region in January 2025, the first North Korean personnel taken alive since Pyongyang deployed thousands to support Moscow’s war.
Human-rights groups had urged against returning them to North Korea, where defector agencies said punishment would be severe. The soldiers had sent handwritten letters and given interviews expressing a wish to resettle in the South, where nationality law treats most North Koreans as citizens.
Seoul’s confirm-nothing posture
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said it could not disclose whether individuals were transferred, citing safety for the soldiers and their families. Officials did not deny Zelenskyy’s account, repeating that Seoul respects the detainees’ free will and international humanitarian law. That formula effectively acknowledges consultations with Kyiv while keeping protective custody arrangements off the record.
President Lee Jae Myung and Zelenskyy agreed in July on the sidelines of the NATO summit in Ankara to resolve the cases on humanitarian grounds. In June, South Korea said it would accept North Korean POWs who fought for Russia and oppose repatriation to Russia or the North—a policy that made Zelenskyy’s UN line the first open confirmation that the pipeline had completed.
Yu Yong-weon and the timing fight
At the National Assembly on Thursday, Rep. Yu Yong-weon of the opposition PPP said the two arrived safely “several days ago,” with staff telling reporters the window was three or four days before Zelenskyy spoke. Yu criticized the government for letting a foreign leader break the news, arguing Seoul should have announced the transfer as the sovereign state responsible for protecting them under the constitution.
Yu credited Ukrainian cooperation and thanked officials who worked quietly, but his press conference turned the humanitarian story into a domestic optics battle days before budget debates where Lee’s administration faces questions on Ukraine aid and North Korea policy.
Cho–Sybiha meeting in New York
While Zelenskyy’s speech dominated headlines, Cho met Sybiha on Wednesday in New York. The foreign ministry said they discussed bilateral ties and Seoul’s continued non-lethal support for Ukraine, including pledges made in Ankara, but the public statement omitted POW language. Sybiha thanked Korea for assistance; Cho reiterated support without confirming the soldiers’ status—consistent with the ministry’s safety-first gag order.
Focus Taiwan and other regional outlets have tracked how North Korean manpower in Russia affects Indo-Pacific security calculations; Seoul’s low-key handling reflects fear that Pyongyang or Moscow could retaliate against families still in the North if routes and identities leak.
What happens after arrival
If Yu’s timeline holds, the soldiers are already inside South Korean intake procedures used for defectors—debriefings, medical care, and gradual public exposure under National Intelligence Service oversight. Unification Ministry officials declined comment Thursday, leaving Zelenskyy’s quote and Yu’s press conference as the clearest markers that Kursk captives have crossed from Ukrainian wards to Korean protection.
For the politics desk, the new fact is diplomatic: a UN-stage confirmation of transfer, a government that still will not say “they are here,” and an opposition lawmaker pinning arrival to three or four days before the speech. The soldiers’ wishes, once scribbled in captivity, now meet a state that prefers silence until the family-risk calculus allows a formal welcome.
