{"id":31242,"date":"2026-09-28T17:12:09","date_gmt":"2026-09-28T14:12:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ukrmedia.news\/?p=31242"},"modified":"2026-09-28T17:12:09","modified_gmt":"2026-09-28T14:12:09","slug":"seoul-summons-ukraine-envoy-nk-pows","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ukrmedia.news\/en\/world\/seoul-summons-ukraine-envoy-nk-pows\/","title":{"rendered":"South Korea summoned a Ukrainian diplomat over the handover of North Korean prisoners of war"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"news-lead\">On 28 September, the South Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs summoned Andriy Veshkin, the Charg\u00e9 d\u2019Affaires for Ukraine, following a public announcement regarding the handover of two North Korean prisoners of war to the Republic of Korea. Seoul claimed that the confidentiality agreement had been breached and demanded an official explanation and an apology. Kyiv denies that such an agreement exists.<\/p>\n<div class=\"news-summary-box\">\n<p><strong>Briefly about the main points<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Seoul summoned Ukraine\u2019s charg\u00e9 d\u2019affaires, Andriy Veshkin.<\/li>\n<li>The reason was the disclosure of the handover of two North Korean soldiers.<\/li>\n<li>South Korea says a non-disclosure agreement has been reached.<\/li>\n<li>Dmytro Lytvyn denied that such an agreement existed.<\/li>\n<li>Seoul has indicated that it may take further steps, but has not specified what these might be.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<h2>Seoul\u2019s complaints were passed on to the Ukrainian representative<\/h2>\n<p>The South Korean government\u2019s position was conveyed to Veshkina by the First Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs <strong>Park Yong-ju<\/strong>. He expressed concern that the Ukrainian side is publicly denying the existence of a non-disclosure agreement.<\/p>\n<p>According to a statement from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs <a href=\"https:\/\/ukrmedia.news\/en\/world\/kndr-raketa-navchannyamy-ssha-seul\/\">South Korea<\/a>, this situation undermines mutual trust and friendly relations between the countries. The Ukrainian diplomat replied that he would convey Seoul\u2019s position to Kyiv.<\/p>\n<h2>South Korea cites security risks as the reason for the confidentiality<\/h2>\n<p>The South Korean Presidential Administration cites the need to keep the process confidential on grounds of the safety of the former prisoners and their families, as well as diplomatic and humanitarian considerations.<\/p>\n<p>A spokesperson for the administration claims that it was Ukraine itself that asked for the handover not to be made public, due to the possibility of domestic criticism. According to Seoul, these soldiers could have been seen as a bargaining chip to secure the release of Ukrainian fighters held captive by Russia. Kyiv rejects this claim regarding any such agreement.<\/p>\n<h2>Kyiv states that it has not undertaken to remain silent<\/h2>\n<p>25 September: the President of Ukraine\u2019s adviser on communications <strong>Dmytro Lytvyn<\/strong> In comments on Facebook, he stated that there had been no confidentiality agreement. In his view, it would be wrong to conceal the location where the prisoners were handed over.<\/p>\n<p>In response to an enquiry from Yonhap, the Office of the President stated that Ukraine had disclosed only the fact that two North Koreans had been handed over, without revealing any details of the process.<\/p>\n<h2>The dispute began following Zelenskyy\u2019s address to the UN General Assembly<\/h2>\n<p><strong>Volodymyr Zelenskyy<\/strong> reported the handover of two prisoners of war <a href=\"https:\/\/ukrmedia.news\/en\/politics\/south-korea-ukraine-north-korean-pows-apology\/\">DPRK<\/a> The Republic of Korea during a speech at the UN General Assembly in New York. The discussion centred on soldiers who had fought on Russia\u2019s side and been taken prisoner by Ukraine.<\/p>\n<p>On 27 September, the day before the diplomat was summoned, the South Korean presidential administration had already demanded an explanation and an apology, and stated that it might consider further measures. Seoul did not specify what these measures might be, and the parties continue to disagree publicly over whether a non-disclosure agreement existed.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>South Korea has summoned a Ukrainian diplomat over the disclosure of the handover of two North Korean soldiers and is demanding an apology.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":207433355,"featured_media":31241,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rank_math_description":"\u041f\u0456\u0432\u0434\u0435\u043d\u043d\u0430 \u041a\u043e\u0440\u0435\u044f \u0432\u0438\u043a\u043b\u0438\u043a\u0430\u043b\u0430 \u0443\u043a\u0440\u0430\u0457\u043d\u0441\u044c\u043a\u043e\u0433\u043e \u0434\u0438\u043f\u043b\u043e\u043c\u0430\u0442\u0430 \u0447\u0435\u0440\u0435\u0437 \u0440\u043e\u0437\u0433\u043e\u043b\u043e\u0448\u0435\u043d\u043d\u044f \u043f\u0435\u0440\u0435\u0434\u0430\u0447\u0456 \u0434\u0432\u043e\u0445 \u0432\u0456\u0439\u0441\u044c\u043a\u043e\u0432\u0438\u0445 \u041a\u041d\u0414\u0420 \u0456 \u0432\u0438\u043c\u0430\u0433\u0430\u0454 \u0432\u0438\u0431\u0430\u0447\u0435\u043d\u044c.","rank_math_title":"\u041f\u0456\u0432\u0434\u0435\u043d\u043d\u0430 \u041a\u043e\u0440\u0435\u044f \u0432\u0438\u043a\u043b\u0438\u043a\u0430\u043b\u0430 \u0434\u0438\u043f\u043b\u043e\u043c\u0430\u0442\u0430 \u0423\u043a\u0440\u0430\u0457\u043d\u0438 \u0447\u0435\u0440\u0435\u0437 \u043f\u043e\u043b\u043e\u043d\u0435\u043d\u0438\u0445","rank_math_focus_keyword":"\u041f\u0456\u0432\u0434\u0435\u043d\u043d\u0430 \u041a\u043e\u0440\u0435\u044f","td_subtitle":"","subtitle":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[805619],"tags":[805624],"class_list":["post-31242","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-world","tag-805624"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ukrmedia.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31242","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ukrmedia.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ukrmedia.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ukrmedia.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/207433355"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ukrmedia.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31242"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/ukrmedia.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31242\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31244,"href":"https:\/\/ukrmedia.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31242\/revisions\/31244"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ukrmedia.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31241"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ukrmedia.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31242"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ukrmedia.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31242"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ukrmedia.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31242"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}