South Korean President Lee Jae Myung has threatened unspecified action against Ukraine unless Kyiv apologizes for publicly revealing the transfer of two captured North Korean soldiers.
Lee, 60, issued the warning on Friday in a post on X, escalating a diplomatic dispute that began after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy announced the transfer at the United Nations General Assembly last month. Seoul maintains the handover was covered by a confidentiality agreement meant to protect the soldiers, while Ukrainian officials have denied any such pact existed.
“If the refusal to acknowledge the facts and issue a public apology continues, we will take additional measures,” Lee wrote on X.
The South Korean leader also fired back at what he called Ukrainian remarks suggesting an imminent military clash between North and South Korea. Lee expressed “grave regret” over those comments, stating they amounted to encouraging war on the Korean peninsula.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha had attempted to soften the dispute just a day earlier. “I would not like to call this an incident. Let’s say, it’s a diplomatic misunderstanding,” Sybiha told journalists at an event, according to Ukrainian media reports on Thursday. His conciliatory tone stood in sharp contrast to Lee’s subsequent ultimatum.
A senior South Korean Foreign Ministry official told reporters on Friday that Foreign Minister Cho Hyun and Sybiha had been in direct contact about how Kyiv might address Seoul’s concerns. The discussions reportedly centered on what level of response Seoul was seeking and what Ukraine could accept, while taking into account Ukraine’s wartime circumstances and the need to avoid causing either side a loss of face.
Cho Han-bum, a senior fellow at the Korea Institute for National Unification in Seoul, predicted that any additional measures would most likely involve support South Korea already provides to Ukraine, including humanitarian, financial and reconstruction assistance. “Ukraine has more to lose than South Korea because it is receiving support from Seoul,” Cho said.
The dispute erupted when Zelenskiy revealed at the UN General Assembly last month that Ukraine had transferred two North Korean prisoners of war to South Korea. The soldiers had been captured while fighting for Russia. Seoul subsequently accused Kyiv of breaching a confidentiality agreement, while Ukrainian officials denied any such deal existed. Kyiv’s embassy in Seoul did not immediately reply to a request for comment on Lee’s latest remarks.
South Korea has provided humanitarian and financial assistance to Ukraine since Russia’s 2022 full-scale invasion and in July pledged an additional $100 million in non-lethal support on the sidelines of the NATO summit. “However, neither side benefits from a prolonged confrontation,” Cho added, noting that South Korea relies on Ukraine for information related to North Korea’s military activities.
The timing complicates Lee’s broader diplomatic posture. His administration has sought to reduce tensions with North Korea and is already managing political fallout from a recent landmine incident in the Demilitarized Zone that separates the two Koreas.
Ukrainian media reported that Kyiv was seeking to mend ties with South Korea even before Lee’s Friday post.