SEOUL – South Korea’s foreign ministry said on Tuesday it would withdraw some staff from its embassy in Ukraine, as a diplomatic row deepens over the transfer of North Korean prisoners of war to Seoul.
The two countries have been at loggerheads since Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky disclosed the prisoner transfer last month, angering Seoul, which said the operation should have remained confidential to protect their families in North Korea.
The announcement came more than a week after South Korea’s ambassador to Ukraine returned home after Seoul’s demand for an official apology over what it called an “unilateral disclosure” by Zelensky went unanswered.
The recall of Seoul’s ambassador has met with “no positive response from the Ukrainian side”, Park Doo-soon, the spokesperson for Seoul’s foreign ministry, told reporters Tuesday.
And in “light of the persistent threat of air strikes throughout the country, which makes ensuring the safety of personnel difficult, the government has decided to withdraw some of its diplomatic mission staff”, he added.
Under Seoul’s constitution, all North Koreans are considered citizens of the Republic of Korea, as the South is officially known, and those who reach its territory and seek to defect are generally allowed to stay.
Analysts say the Seoul government’s broader push to ease tensions with Pyongyang may also have given it reason to avoid turning the POWs’ defection into a public spectacle.
Seoul previously summoned Kyiv’s ambassador and threatened unspecified “further measures”.
Ukraine has insisted that “diplomacy must prevail over emotions” in relations between the countries and later said they consider “the situation resolved”.
Earlier this month, Seoul’s foreign minister Cho Hyun said Ukraine had sent a message that “included words of apology” over Zelensky’s disclosure, but it fell short of “the level” Seoul had in mind.
Both POWs were identifiable, as they had been photographed by South Korean media before their arrival in the South.
North Korea is known to retaliate against defectors and their families.
Seoul’s spy agency said that Zelensky may have disclosed the transfer of the North Korean soldiers to boost public support in South Korea for Seoul providing arms to Ukraine.
South Korea has in recent years emerged as a major arms exporter — particularly since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in early 2022 — including through a multibillion-dollar arms deal with Poland.
But it has refrained from supplying Kyiv with lethal weapons, citing its longstanding policy of not arming countries engaged in active conflicts.
