South Korea threatens action against Ukraine over transfer of North Koreans

South Korean President Lee Jae-myung yesterday threatened unspecified measures against Ukraine unless Kyiv acknowledged a confidentiality agreement that Seoul says covered the transfer of two captured North Korean soldiers and issued an apology.

“If the refusal to acknowledge the facts and issue a public apology continues, we will take additional measures,” Lee wrote on X.

Lee also expressed “grave regret” over what he described as Ukrainian remarks about an imminent military clash between North and South Korea, saying they amounted to encouraging war on the Korean Peninsula.

South Korean President Lee Jae-myung addresses a ceremony to mark the 30th anniversary of Senior Citizens Day in Seoul yesterday.

Photo: EPA

Seoul and Kyiv have been locked in a diplomatic dispute since Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy announced at the UN General Assembly last month that Ukraine had transferred two North Korean prisoners of war captured while fighting for Russia to South Korea.

Seoul subsequently accused Kyiv of breaching an agreement to keep the transfer confidential to protect the soldiers, while Ukrainian officials denied any such agreement existed.

Kyiv’s embassy in Seoul did not immediately reply to a request for comment on Lee’s remarks.

Illia Honcharenko’s mother and other family members scatter three handfuls of earth in a final farewell to the 14-year-old, who was killed in a Russian missile strike on a residential building on Wednesday, during his funeral in Vyshhorod, Ukraine, yesterday.

Photo: AP

Ukraine was seeking to mend ties with South Korea, Ukrainian media reported, quoting Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs Andrii Sybiha.

“I would not like to call this an incident. Let’s say, it’s a diplomatic misunderstanding,” Sybiha told journalists at an event, according to a report on Thursday on news Web site nv.ua and other media.

A senior South Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs official yesterday told reporters that the countries’ foreign ministers had been discussing how Kyiv could address Seoul’s concerns, including a possible apology, according to South Korean media reports.

South Korean Minister of Foreign Affairs Cho Hyun and Sybiha had been in direct contact and were discussing what level of response Seoul was seeking and what Ukraine could accept, while taking into account Ukraine’s wartime circumstances and the need to avoid causing either side a loss of face, the reports said.

The dispute comes at a sensitive time for Lee’s administration, which has sought to reduce tensions with North Korea and is also dealing with the political fallout from a recent landmine incident in the demilitarized zone that separates the two Koreas.

Cho Han-bum, a senior fellow at the Korea Institute for National Unification in Seoul, said any additional measures would most likely involve support South Korea already provides to Ukraine, including humanitarian, financial and reconstruction assistance.

“Ukraine has more to lose than South Korea because it is receiving support from Seoul,” Cho said.

South Korea has provided humanitarian and financial assistance to Ukraine since Russia’s 2022 full-scale invasion and in July pledged an additional US$100 million in non-lethal support on the sidelines of the NATO summit.

“However, neither side benefits from a prolonged confrontation,” Cho said, adding that South Korea relies on Ukraine for information related to North Korea’s military activities.