President Lee Jae Myung said he regretted that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy made public the handover of two captured North Korean soldiers to South Korea, a disclosure Seoul had hoped to keep quiet because of peninsula security and diplomatic sensitivities.
Lee's remarks, made in a post on X and elaborated in a briefing, came after Zelenskyy mentioned the transfer during his address to the U.N. General Assembly. According to South Korean officials, Seoul and Kyiv had agreed to handle the matter confidentially. The president indicated the public mention could complicate follow-up work involving the soldiers, their resettlement, and any future intelligence or humanitarian cooperation.
A transfer meant to stay quiet
The two North Korean troops were captured while fighting alongside Russian forces in Ukraine, according to Ukrainian and South Korean accounts. South Korea has said it will treat them in accordance with domestic law and humanitarian principles. Seoul had been negotiating the transfer quietly, with officials wary of provoking Pyongyang and of exposing details that could affect other North Koreans sent to fight for Russia.
Zelenskyy's U.N. General Assembly reference put the arrangement on the international agenda. For Lee, that creates a contradiction: the transfer is a humanitarian and security matter, but publicity can harden North Korea's position, raise risks for the soldiers' families, and narrow Seoul's room to maneuver.
Seoul's confidentiality pact and the cost of disclosure
The presidential office briefing pointed to a confidentiality understanding with Kyiv. South Korean officials did not release the full text of any agreement, but they said the expectation was that the handover would be announced only when Seoul judged it safe. Lee's regret is not a rejection of the transfer itself. It is a signal that the timing and venue of the disclosure, not the underlying decision, is the problem.
For the National Assembly, the issue now touches the foreign affairs and unification committees, where lawmakers are likely to ask whether the government had a legal basis for the transfer, how the soldiers will be processed, and whether Seoul can still protect its intelligence channels with Kyiv. The presidential office has not indicated it will seek new legislation, but the episode could feed into questions about transparency and executive authority in security matters.
The practical questions are immediate. South Korean officials must decide where the soldiers will live, whether they will be treated as defectors or prisoners, and how to handle any requests from Ukraine or international bodies. Pyongyang has not recognized the transfer, and any North Korean reaction could arrive through military signals, propaganda, or border incidents.
Lee's public regret also sends a message to allies: Seoul wants cooperation, but it wants to control the disclosure timetable. That preference may shape how South Korea handles similar cases, including any future North Korean captures in Ukraine. For now, the government is left managing a diplomatic irritant that it had tried to keep out of the U.N. spotlight.