South Korea voices regret over Ukraine denial of pact on North Korean PoWs, Yonhap reports

Sept 27 (Reuters) – South Korea’s presidential office expressed “strong regret” on Sunday over what it described as Ukraine’s denial of an agreement with Seoul not to disclose the transfer of two North Korean prisoners of war to South Korea, Yonhap News Agency reported.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy told  the United Nations General Assembly on Wednesday that Ukraine had transferred two captured North Korean soldiers to South Korea. He saying the men had recently been sent there after being captured while fighting for Russia in the war against Ukraine.

South Korean President Lee Jae Myung later said it was “deeply regretful” that Ukraine had made the transfer public, adding that the two sides had agreed not to disclose it.

The presidential office “expresses strong regret over Ukraine’s unilateral disclosure (of the transfer) and its subsequent false announcement that there had not been a non-disclosure agreement,” Yonhap quoted Seong Ghi-hong, senior presidential secretary for public relations, as saying in a statement. 

The South Korean official added that the government was considering additional measures over the issue if necessary, Yonhap added.

Ukraine captured the two North Koreans in Russia’s Kursk region in January 2025. They were the first North Korean soldiers to be captured alive since Pyongyang entered the Russia-Ukraine war in 2024.

The transfer comes as South Korea has backed efforts to revive dialogue with North Korea, while US President Donald Trump has renewed his willingness to engage with Pyongyang.

(Reporting by Rishabh Jaiswal in Bengaluru; Editing by Jan Harvey and Alex Richardson)

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