- Category
- World
South Korea Says It Will Accept All North Korean POWs Captured by Ukraine
Prefer U24 Media on Google
- Authors
![Photo of Roman Kohanets]( "Photo of Roman Kohanets")
-111f0e5095e02c02446ffed57bfb0ab1.jpeg "Photo of Roman Kohanets")
South Korea will accept all North Korean prisoners of war who fought for Russia and were captured by Ukraine, if they wish to relocate there, Seoul's foreign ministry announced on June 23.
The ministry stated that Seoul opposes any repatriation of North Korean captives to Russia or to North Korea against their will.
We bring you stories from the ground. Your support keeps our team in the field.
The position emerged ahead of talks between South Korean and Ukrainian ministers, scheduled for June 30 in Seoul.
The offer addresses a contingent whose presence on the battlefield has been documented for more than a year. North Korea began deploying troops to support Russia in the fall of 2024, concentrating them in the Kursk region after Ukrainian forces pushed across the border.
A June assessment by the Council on Foreign Relations estimated that Pyongyang has sent between 14,000 and 15,000 soldiers to fight alongside Russian forces. The figure combines an initial deployment of roughly 11,000 to 12,000 troops with several thousand reservists dispatched to replace battlefield losses.
-3e495585fff46b2c2b9fa03978a062bd.jpg)
Alongside its personnel, North Korea has supplied Russia with ballistic missiles, long-range artillery, and millions of rounds of ammunition.
Ukrainian military intelligence has reported North Korean units operating reconnaissance drones from Kursk into the neighboring Sumy region, while smaller numbers of North Korean soldiers have been captured by Ukrainian forces.
The captives now at the center of Seoul's offer belong to a wider group of foreign fighters whose detention has proven difficult to resolve.
Many have languished in Ukrainian custody with no clear route home, as Russia has largely declined to retrieve foreign recruits through prisoner exchanges, with North Koreans the one consistent exception.
The status of captured North Korean soldiers has been further complicated by humanitarian law and the principle of non-refoulement, which bars returning individuals to a state where they risk persecution.
Discuss this article:
-4a56a6b482ec132402c16ef6fcabf9a2.png)
-72b63a4e0c8c475ad81fe3eed3f63729.jpeg "Photo of Cyril Barabaltchouk")
