---
title: "Seoul spy agency says Kyiv first asked to keep North Korean POW transfer secret"
description: "Ukraine revealed the repatriation to build South Korean arms-support sentiment, intelligence officials said, and has not apologised"
author: "rews desk"
published: 2026-09-30T02:15:43.410Z
modified: 2026-09-30T07:12:36Z
url: https://rews.cc/a/seoul-spy-agency-says-kyiv-first-asked-to-keep-north-korean--0bb185
language: en
tags: ["north-korea", "ukraine", "war", "prisoners", "intelligence", "world"]
publisher: "Rews (https://rews.cc)"
---

# Seoul spy agency says Kyiv first asked to keep North Korean POW transfer secret

*Ukraine revealed the repatriation to build South Korean arms-support sentiment, intelligence officials said, and has not apologised*

By rews desk · September 30, 2026 · https://rews.cc/a/seoul-spy-agency-says-kyiv-first-asked-to-keep-north-korean--0bb185

## In brief

- South Korea’s NIS told lawmakers Ukraine first asked to keep the North Korean POW transfer secret
- Seoul lodged a strong protest and demanded a formal apology from Kyiv on September 27
- Ukraine has offered no apology, official or unofficial, Yoo Yong-ha said
- NIS assessed Ukraine disclosed the transfer hoping to build South Korean support for weapons aid
- Repatriated prisoners were in good health and had confirmed their wish to come to South Korea

South Korea’s National Intelligence Service told lawmakers on Tuesday that Ukraine first requested secrecy over the transfer of North Korean prisoners of war to Seoul, and disclosed it on the expectation of generating South Korean public support for weapons aid.

The agency also reported that Seoul lodged a strong protest and demanded a formal apology from Kyiv on September 27, and that Ukraine has offered none, formally or informally.

The account emerged from a closed-door briefing to the National Assembly’s intelligence committee, relayed by committee deputy chairs Yoon Kun-young of the ruling Democratic Party and Yoo Yong-ha of the opposition People Power Party, the Chosun Ilbo reported.

“From the outset of consultations between South Korea and Ukraine on the North Korean POW transfer, discussions proceeded under a shared understanding that they should be kept private,” the NIS said, according to the lawmakers. The agency said it could not say whether the two countries’ presidents had agreed to secrecy, but that an agreement was reached in the course of contacts between diplomats and embassies.

Yoo said the government expressed strong regret to Ukraine and demanded an official apology on September 27. Ukraine has since made “no expression of regret or apology, official or unofficial”, he said.

On Kyiv’s decision to make the transfer public, Yoo said: “Our intelligence agency’s analysis is that \[Ukraine\] appeared to hope it would create public sentiment in South Korea for support, including weapons, if the POW transfer were disclosed.”

The dispute has run through the week, with Seoul and Kyiv [giving conflicting accounts](https://rews.cc/a/two-north-korean-pows-one-disputed-understanding-seoul-and-k-8f2f79) of whether a confidentiality pact existed and South Korea summoning Ukraine’s ambassador after President Volodymyr Zelensky spoke of [the transfer at the United Nations](https://rews.cc/a/seoul-demands-an-apology-from-kyiv-over-two-north-korean-pri-ad8478). Ukraine has said no secrecy agreement was reached.

Yoon said the NIS reported that the prisoners repatriated to South Korea were in good health with no major problems. The prisoners had confirmed their wish to come to the Republic of Korea by their own free will on several occasions, he said.

On the prospect of talks between North Korea and the United States, Yoo said the intelligence agency assessed a 50 percent chance of a meeting being arranged around the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation gathering. “North Korea also does not want to miss this opportunity,” he said, citing the agency’s analysis.

The two lawmakers also relayed the NIS reading of a statement by Kim Yo-jong, sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, who flatly rejected South Korea’s finding that a recent blast in the Demilitarised Zone was most likely caused by a North Korean landmine and threatened an unsparing response to any live fire near the border. The agency assessed her statement as “low-key”, the lawmakers said, and believed North Korea called the blast a fabrication staged by the South to cut off any link to North Korea.