Seoul seeks apology after Ukraine 'breached' confidentiality agreement over transfer of North Korean POWs

South Korea's President’s Lee Jae Myung’s office demanded an apology from Ukraine for denying an agreement to keep the transfer of two North Korean prisoners of war from its territory to Seoul confidential.

The row was ignited by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's disclosure last week that his country had sent two North Korean soldiers to the South, adding that they were "not easy to capture alive".

The intensifying dispute risks complicating Kyiv's efforts to obtain weapons from allies, including South Korea, to fight off bombardments from Russia.

Hours after Zelenskyy's disclosure, South Korea's President Lee Jae Myung criticised the action.

"I do not know why the Ukrainian side broke the agreement and made the matter public, but it is very disappointing," he wrote on X.

Zelenskyy's aide Dmytro Lytvyn sought to play down the disclosure, saying that the president had only made public the fact that the soldiers were handed to South Korea. Ukraine is an "open country", noted Lytvyn, saying that it would be “unusual” to hand over the soldiers in secret.

But Seoul condemned it as a breach of trust.

Seong Ghi-hong, senior presidential secretary for public relations, said in a statement late on Sunday that South Korea was "considering additional measures that may be necessary regarding this matter".

"It is in itself a very serious matter that the Ukrainian side violated the confidentiality agreement between the two countries and made the disclosure unilaterally,” he said.