South Korea's Foreign Ministry said on the 28th that it had summoned Ukraine's charge d'affaires in Seoul to deliver a stern protest over Kyiv's unilateral disclosure of the transfer of North Korean prisoners of war.
First Vice Foreign Minister Park Yoon-joo called in Andrii Beshkin, Ukraine's charge d'affaires, to the ministry building in Seoul that day. Park expressed strong regret that the Ukrainian side had unilaterally revealed at the United Nations General Assembly that the prisoners were headed to South Korea, despite a clear agreement between the two governments to keep the matter confidential.
Park said that "Ukraine's announcement of the false claim that there was no confidential agreement seriously damages trust between the two governments and undermines friendly relations between the two countries." She also demanded an official explanation and apology from the Ukrainian government over the disclosure of the transfer and the false public statement, and urged that such incidents not be repeated.
The ministry said Beshkin listened carefully to the South Korean government's position and pledged to report it accurately to his government.
Ukrainian forces captured two North Korean soldiers in Russia's Kursk region in January last year, and the two later expressed a desire to go to South Korea. After Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy disclosed their transfer to South Korea at the U.N. General Assembly on the 23rd, a dispute erupted over whether a confidential agreement had existed.
