Ukraine handed over North Korean soldiers in captivity to South Korea

Ukraine handed over captured North Korean soldiers to South Korea

Ukraine has sent two North Korean prisoners of war who fought on the Russian side to South Korea. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky announced this during his speech at the UN General Assembly.

"Recently, we handed over two POWs from the DPRK to the Republic of Korea," Zelensky said.

He added that one of the prisoners had attempted suicide upon realizing he might be captured.

"One of them attempted suicide when he realized he was being captured. He was shocked that fate saved him from death," the Ukrainian President said.

The Ukrainian military captured these two soldiers in Russia's Kursk region in January 2025. They were the first North Korean soldiers to be captured alive since the DPRK joined the war in 2024.

Initially, Zelensky expressed readiness to hand them over to Kim Jong Un in exchange for Ukrainian prisoners in Russia. However, lawyers stated that returning the soldiers to the DPRK would pose a threat to their lives. According to South Korean media, the prisoners themselves expressed a desire to go to South Korea.

South Korean MP Yu Yong-won reported that the prisoners left Ukraine last weekend. They arrived in South Korea via a third country three to four days ago.

"Their exact location is not being disclosed. Our intelligence service is keeping them in a safe place," the MP said.

The South Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not officially confirm this information due to security reasons.

In his speech, Zelensky sharply criticized the leadership of the DPRK.

"This is just madness. Why should Koreans die in the war against Ukraine? Kim Jong Un is using them as currency," the Ukrainian President said.

According to Ukrainian and South Korean estimates, the DPRK has sent around 14,000–15,000 troops to Russia since 2024. Most of them are fighting in the Kursk region. North Korea has also supplied Moscow with millions of artillery shells and missiles.

Earlier, it was reported that Russia had involved up to 25,000 North Korean citizens in assembling drones used in the war against Ukraine. This was reported by the Multilateral Sanctions Monitoring Team (MSMT), established by the US, Germany, South Korea, Japan, and other countries.

According to the data, Russia is increasingly actively involving DPRK citizens in the production of military drones. Such cooperation provides Pyongyang with an important source of income to fund its illegal weapons production programs, the report says.