Zelensky Tells UN Ukraine Sent Two Captured North Korean Soldiers to South Korea

Volodymyr Zelensky told the United Nations General Assembly on Wednesday that Ukraine sent two captured North Korean soldiers to South Korea, not back to North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un.

"Recently, we sent two North Korean prisoners of war to the Republic of Korea," Zelensky said in his speech, according to Reuters. He didn't give a timeline or route.

South Korean opposition lawmaker Yu Yong-weon filled in some of that gap. He told reporters Thursday that the two men left Ukraine last weekend, moved through a third country, and landed in South Korea three to four days before the announcement, according to Yonhap News Agency. "While their exact location is unknown, I believe our intelligence agencies are protecting them," Yu said.

South Korea's Foreign Ministry won't confirm any of it. The ministry said it has been consulting with Kyiv "to resolve the matter in a manner that respects the soldiers' free will and complies with international law and humanitarian principles," according to the Associated Press, but declined to discuss "disposition, the timing or route of their transfer, or specific contents of consultations," citing the safety of the soldiers and their families back in North Korea.

Captured Alive, Which Almost Never Happens

Ukrainian forces captured the two men in Russia's Kursk region in January 2025. They were the first North Korean soldiers taken alive since Pyongyang joined the war on Russia's side in 2024, according to the New York Post and Arab News.

Zelensky described just how hard that was. "These guys are not easy to capture alive," he told the UN. "One of them, when he realized he was going to be taken prisoner, tried to kill himself. And he was shocked that fate did not let him die." The Associated Press reported he added a line that didn't make every outlet's version of the speech: "This is how they raise people in the North."

It's a direct statement about what North Korea's regime does to its own soldiers.

The Real Tension: Trade Bait or Defectors

Zelensky originally floated handing these two men over to Kim Jong Un in exchange for Ukrainian prisoners held by Russia. That's a defensible position on its face: Ukraine has its own soldiers rotting in Russian custody, and prisoner swaps are standard wartime leverage.

Human rights groups pushed back hard, according to the New York Post, Arab News, and Reuters, warning that sending the men back to North Korea would likely mean punishment or worse for defectors and their families. South Korean media reported the two soldiers themselves said they wanted to go to South Korea, not home.

Zelensky went with the second option. Whether that cost Ukraine leverage in a future prisoner exchange with Moscow is a fair question nobody in these reports has answered. Ukraine still has soldiers in Russian captivity, and this was one card it chose not to play with Russia directly, since North Korea isn't the party holding Ukrainian POWs. It's a genuinely open question whether Kyiv had better options here or whether this was mostly a humanitarian call with no real trade-off attached.

Seoul Already Said Yes

This wasn't a snap decision. South Korea said back in June it would take in any North Korean POW who fought for Russia and wanted to stay, and specifically ruled out sending any of them back to Russia or North Korea, per Reuters and Arab News.

The groundwork got laid further at a July summit in Ankara, Turkey, where South Korean President Lee Jae Myung met Zelensky. Presidential spokeswoman Kang Yoo-jung said afterward the two leaders agreed to resolve the soldiers' status on humanitarian grounds while respecting what the soldiers themselves wanted, according to Al Jazeera and Anadolu Agency.

The Bigger Picture Zelensky Was Making

Zelensky used the moment to hammer North Korea's role in the war generally. "Kim Jong Un uses them like currency," he said. "And he gets something in return." Al Jazeera reported he went further, warning that countries across Asia "have likely already noticed North Korea's enhanced ballistic missiles and significantly advanced drone capabilities" — technology South Korean and Ukrainian officials believe Pyongyang got from Moscow in exchange for troops and ammunition.

South Korean intelligence estimated in April 2025 that North Korea sent roughly 15,000 soldiers to fight for Russia since October 2024, with about 2,000 killed, according to the Associated Press. Ukrainian and South Korean estimates put the current total closer to 14,000 to 15,000 deployed overall, per Reuters.

North Korea hasn't publicly commented, and neither Kyiv nor Seoul has said what, if anything, happens next for the two men now that they're reportedly on South Korean soil. Whether Pyongyang retaliates against their families back home is exactly the risk South Korea's Foreign Ministry says it's trying to guard against by staying quiet.