[Editorial] Top priority in North Korean POW case should be human rights, not politics

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy speaks before the UN General Assembly at the United Nations headquarters in New York, US, on Sept. 23, 2026. (UPI/Yonhap)

Two North Korean prisoners of war captured by Ukrainian forces early last year recently arrived in South Korea.

Seoul says it arranged for their entry in accordance with international law and humanitarian principles and decided to keep the process under wraps to protect the two men and their families.

But the main opposition People Power Party (PPP) is accusing the government of keeping the transfer secret because it is “worried about how North Korea will react.” This is yet another attempt to turn every issue into a partisan squabble, with scant regard for human rights or national security.

The existence of the North Korean POWs became known in January last year, when Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced on social media that Ukrainian forces had captured them in Russia’s Kursk region.

The two men have since expressed their desire to defect to South Korea in media interviews and elsewhere. Given the grave danger they could face if returned to the North, Seoul and Kyiv’s decision to allow them to come to the South was the right one on humanitarian grounds.

The South Korean government says it also agreed with Ukraine to keep the transfer confidential out of concern for the safety of the two men and their families, who remain in North Korea.

But the transfer was made public when Zelenskyy said in his address to the UN General Assembly on Sept. 23, “Recently, we sent two North Korean prisoners of war to the Republic of Korea.”

Korean President Lee Jae Myung expressed regret the following day, saying that Ukraine had disclosed the transfer “in violation of our agreement to keep it confidential” and that he found the disclosure “very disappointing,” whatever its motivation.

Now that the two men’s transfer has been made public, the government must do everything it can to ensure they are thoroughly protected as they settle into Korean society. The PPP, for its part, should stop making groundless accusations.

In a Facebook post on Friday, PPP floor leader Rep. Jeong Jeom-sig asked, “Why [was President Lee] so fixated on keeping this secret? Was he really that afraid of upsetting Kim Jong-un? Does that fear stem from his connection to a case involving cash remittances to North Korea?”

Since the PPP has tirelessly championed the human rights of North Koreans, why is it turning a blind eye to the safety of these two North Korean soldiers and their families? And considering that publicizing the POWs’ transfer to South Korea is likely to provoke North Korea, how would that serve our national security?

The guiding principle in handling this matter must be a humanitarian approach that respects the human rights of these two North Korean soldiers.

South Korea must not shrink from acting out of concern that doing so might harm relations with North Korea or Russia. At the same time, the two men and their testimony must not be treated as ammunition for public attacks on those two countries either.

We must keep the two men’s human rights and safety front and center as we tackle this issue.