President Lee Jae-myung of South Korea on Friday demanded that Ukraine admit and publicly apologize for breaking a confidentiality pact over the transfer of two North Korean prisoners of war, warning of further measures if it refuses.
Mr. Lee issued the warning in a morning post on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, responding to Ukrainian news reports in which Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said he hoped the misunderstanding with South Korea could be resolved. “If they continue to refuse to acknowledge the facts and offer a public apology, we will take additional steps,” Mr. Lee wrote. “This concerns the dignity of the people and the state of the Republic of Korea, and we cannot let it pass.”
In the post, Mr. Lee laid out his government’s version of the dispute from the start. Ukraine asked that the prisoner transfer be kept private, Seoul agreed, and then Kyiv disclosed it on its own, he wrote. When he expressed regret “with the greatest courtesy,” Ukraine denied any pact existed, “making the head of state of another country a liar,” he said. And when South Korea asked for an acknowledgment and an apology, a Ukrainian official instead talked of imminent military conflict between the two Koreas. “I express serious regret to a Ukraine that entertains the notion of war breaking out on the Korean Peninsula,” he wrote.
The row dates to Sept. 23, when President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine told the United Nations General Assembly in New York that his country had recently sent two North Korean prisoners of war to South Korea. Seoul said the next day that the disclosure violated an understanding between the governments. Mr. Lee wrote on X at the time that he did not know Ukraine’s reasons but found the episode deeply regrettable.
Ukraine’s presidential office denied that any secrecy pact existed. South Korea’s presidential office called that denial a “false announcement,” expressed strong regret and formally demanded an explanation and an apology, and summoned Ukraine’s ambassador over the matter. Seoul’s spy agency told lawmakers that Kyiv had asked for secrecy first and disclosed the transfer only to build South Korean support for arms aid, and that it had never apologized, according to South Korean news reports.
Kyrylo Budanov, the head of Mr. Zelensky’s office, sharpened the exchange late last month when, according to Ukrainian news reports, he pointed to recent landmine explosions inside the Demilitarized Zone and said conditions between the Koreas were worsening by the day, with an uncontrollable slide to armed conflict only a matter of time. It was that remark that Mr. Lee called talk of war on the peninsula. What further measures South Korea might take, Mr. Lee did not say.