Seoul warns 'further action' if Ukraine does not apologise over prisoner-of-war row
President Lee Jae Myung threatens unspecified "further action" if Kyiv does not publicly apologise over the North Korean prisoner-of-war transfer disclosure.
South Korea’s President Lee Jae Myung has threatened unspecified “further action” if Ukraine does not publicly apologise for revealing that two North Korean prisoners of war had been sent to the South, the BBC reports (source).
Volodymyr Zelenskyy made the disclosure in an address to the UN General Assembly on 23 September, angering Seoul, which says the transfer was meant to stay secret (AP via Manila Bulletin).
Kyiv denies any such confidentiality agreement existed. Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha on Thursday called the episode a “diplomatic misunderstanding”, saying South Korea was “an important country” and he hoped it “will be resolved in the very near future”.
Lee rejected that on X, saying the matter concerned “the dignity of the Korean people and the nation”, and accused Kyiv of attempting to “bring war on the Korean Peninsula”, expressing “serious regret that, instead of acknowledging the facts of the agreement and apologising, they are talking about an imminent military clash between the North and South.”
Lee’s office said it was Ukraine that requested secrecy, to protect the soldiers’ families and to avoid criticism for forfeiting a prisoner-exchange opportunity (Deutsche Welle). Lee has faced heavy domestic criticism, with the opposition accusing him of covering up the transfer to appease Pyongyang.
South Korea has backed Ukraine since Russia’s full-scale invasion but maintains its policy of not supplying lethal weapons to any country in active war.
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