Date: September 23, 2026
Reporter: Emilly Jordan
UNITED NATIONS/SEOUL — Ukraine has transferred two North Korean prisoners of war to South Korea, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Wednesday during his address to the United Nations General Assembly in New York.
“Recently, we sent two North Korean prisoners of war to the Republic of Korea,” Zelenskiy told the 193-member General Assembly. He provided few details about when or how the transfer took place.
The two soldiers were captured by Ukrainian forces in Russia's Kursk region in January 2025. They were the first North Korean soldiers to be captured alive after North Korea became directly involved in Russia's war against Ukraine in 2024.
At the time of their capture, Zelenskiy said Ukraine could hand the soldiers over to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un if an arrangement could be made to exchange them for Ukrainians being held captive in Russia.
Human rights organizations, however, urged Ukraine to send the prisoners to South Korea, citing concerns about what could happen to them if they were returned to North Korea. South Korean media also reported that the two captured soldiers had expressed a desire to defect to South Korea.
South Korean opposition lawmaker Yu Yong-weon said on Thursday that the two men had left Ukraine the previous weekend, travelled through a third country and arrived in South Korea three or four days earlier, according to South Korea's Yonhap News Agency.
Yu said the exact location of the two soldiers was not known but that he believed South Korean intelligence agencies were protecting them.
South Korea's Foreign Ministry declined to confirm the transfer, citing the need to protect the safety of the soldiers and their families. The country's Unification Ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
South Korea had announced in June that it would accept North Korean prisoners of war who had fought for Russia and opposed their repatriation to either Russia or North Korea.
The presence of North Korean troops in Russia's war against Ukraine has become an increasingly important element of the conflict. Ukrainian and South Korean estimates put the number of North Korean soldiers deployed to Russia since 2024 at between 14,000 and 15,000. Most were sent to Russia's Kursk region, where they helped Russian forces repel a Ukrainian military incursion.
Zelenskiy also criticized North Korea's decision to send its soldiers to fight alongside Russian forces.
“This is madness too. Why should Koreans give their lives in a war against Ukraine? Kim Jong Un uses them like currency. And he gets something in return,” he said.
The transfer of the two prisoners represents a significant development because their fate had been closely watched since their capture. Their arrival in South Korea would also provide an opportunity for South Korean authorities to speak with the men about their identities, experiences in Russia and reasons for seeking to remain outside North Korea.
The circumstances surrounding the transfer remained only partly clear on Wednesday, with Ukrainian authorities providing limited details and South Korean officials declining to confirm the soldiers' location for security reasons.
For now, the two North Korean soldiers are at the center of a wider diplomatic issue involving North Korea's military support for Russia, Ukraine's treatment of captured foreign soldiers and South Korea's willingness to receive North Koreans who fought for Moscow.