South Korean president accuses Ukraine of breaching non

South Korean President Lee Jae -m yung has said that Ukraine has breached a non-disclosure agreement by publicly revealing the transfer of two North Korean prisoners of war to South Korea, and that making the information public could lead to numerous problems.

Source: Lee on social media ; The Korea Times

Quote from Lee: "The repatriation of North Korean prisoners is an extremely sensitive issue with serious implications for diplomacy, national security and the situation on the Korean Peninsula.

For those who – regardless of the state of inter-Korean relations, possible loss of life or harm to national interests – would prefer to loudly announce the repatriation to the whole world in order to take credit for it, our government's decision not to disclose this information probably seems difficult to understand...

One cannot be so callous and irresponsible when it comes to matters as vital as human lives and national security."

Details: Lee stressed that there had also been calls within the South Korean government to make information the repatriation public, as this could have helped boost political approval ratings.

However, he said that the decision to keep the information confidential had been carefully considered in view of the various problems that a public announcement could cause.

"People who put human lives and national security at risk for their own petty gain are called murderers or traitors... I do not know the specific circumstances that prompted the Ukrainian side to breach the agreement and make the information public, but this is deeply regrettable," the South Korean president said.

Meanwhile, in response to a query from South Korean news agency Yonhap, the Office of the President stated that Ukraine had only announced the fact that the North Korean prisoners had been transferred to South Korea, without disclosing details of the process. The Ukrainian side said it would have been strange to have kept the event secret.

Furthermore, as noted by The Korea Times, shortly after Zelenskyy's address to the UN General Assembly, the Office of the President stated that the handover of the two North Korean prisoners of war to South Korea had taken place through direct dialogue with Seoul.

In 2025, the Ukrainian forces captured two North Korean soldiers in Russia's Kursk Oblast.

It later emerged that a fake military ID discovered on a captured North Korean soldier was issued in the name of a real person from the Russian republic of Tyva (Tuva).

Speaking at the UN General Assembly on 23 September , President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Ukraine had recently transferred two North Korean prisoners of war to South Korea.

He said that one of the North Koreans had tried to kill himself upon realising he had been captured, as this is how the regime's propaganda conditions people in North Korea.

Zelenskyy also addressed representatives of 47 countries whose citizens Russia is using in the war against Ukraine, calling on them to look after these people and prevent Russia from dragging them into the war and sending them to fight on a foreign front

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