Ukraine and South Korea to hold talks on North Korean POWs
The foreign ministers of Ukraine and South Korea will hold talks in Seoul on 30 June regarding prisoners of war from North Korea who fought on Russia's side.
Source: Reuters
Details: South Korea's Foreign Ministry stated that the country is ready to accept all North Korean prisoners of war who fought on Russia's side, should they wish to come.
"South Korea opposes any repatriation of North Korean prisoners of war to Russia or to North Korea against their wishes," Reuters cited South Korea's Foreign Ministry as saying.
South Korea's Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lee Jae-wong previously explained that South Korea's constitution defines the entire Korean peninsula as its territory, effectively recognising all residents of the peninsula as its citizens.
In December 2025, two North Korean soldiers captured in Ukraine while fighting on Russia's side wrote a letter expressing their wish to go to South Korea.
Background:
- On 11 January 2025, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and the Security Service of Ukraine announced that Ukrainian soldiers had captured two North Korean servicemen in Russia's Kursk Oblast.
- Special Operations Forces posted footage of the capture and evacuation of one North Korean soldier from Russia, while another was shown by the Air Assault Forces.
- The Russian outlet Agentstvo.Novosti reported that a fake military ID found on one of the captured North Koreans was issued in the name of a real resident of Russia's Tyva Republic.
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