South Korea summons Ukrainian envoy over disclosure of prisoner transfer

South Korea’s foreign ministry summoned Ukraine’s chargé d’affaires in Seoul on Monday and delivered a strong protest to Kyiv after the disclosure of the transfer of two captured North Korean soldiers to the country. Seoul has also demanded a formal explanation and an apology from Ukraine over the matter.

According to Reuters, South Korean officials said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky raised the issue at the United Nations General Assembly last week, although Seoul said the two sides had previously agreed to keep the matter confidential.

South Korea later described comments from the Ukrainian presidential office, which said there had been no agreement to keep the issue secret, as false. Seoul has urged Ukraine to prevent such an incident from happening again.

Zelensky had said the two North Korean soldiers were captured while fighting alongside Russian forces against Ukraine and were then transferred to South Korea.

South Korea and Ukraine have been in contact on some issues since the start of the Russia-Ukraine war, and the presence of North Korean troops in the conflict is among the sensitive matters in regional relations.