South Korea's diplomacy put to test in North Korean POW talks with Ukraine

Seoul-Kyiv talks on NK captive stall amid US-Russia peace push: experts

By Lee Hyo-jin

South Korea's diplomatic abilities will be put to the test as it navigates negotiations with Ukraine over a North Korean soldier currently being held in Kyiv who has reportedly sought asylum in the South.

The negotiations come at a delicate time as U.S. President Donald Trump pushes for peace talks with Russian leader Vladimir Putin to end the three-year Russia-Ukraine war. As Ukraine finds itself increasingly alienated from the negotiations, North Korean prisoners of war (POWs) may emerge as valuable bargaining chips for Kyiv.

"We have conveyed our position to Ukraine that South Korea will accept all North Korean POWs in Ukraine who wish to defect in accordance with the Constitution and relevant laws, and plan to engage in necessary discussions," a South Korean foreign ministry official said Friday.

The official declined to comment on whether the government has confirmed the soldier’s intent to defect or how negotiations might proceed, citing the sensitivity of the matter.

The negotiations are said to be in the early stages, with detailed discussions yet to occur.

The talks follow reports that a North Korean soldier, identified only by his surname Ri, expressed his intent to defect to the South in a recent interview with a South Korean media outlet published on Wednesday. Ri, who was captured by Ukrainian forces alongside another soldier in January, is among thousands of North Korean soldiers deployed to the battlefield to support Russia.

This marks the first known case of a North Korean POW from a foreign war zone publicly seeking asylum in Seoul. While several North Korean soldiers have defected before, they have done so from North Korean territory.

Lim Eul-chul, a researcher at the Institute for Far Eastern Studies, thinks it unlikely that the negotiations will yield visible results in the near future. Kyiv is expected to be extra cautious in making decisions regarding the POWs, as its fate hangs in the balance amid the Trump-Putin peace talks.

“This will be a long process and I don't expect to see meaningful developments soon. While our government is stressing that the issue should be handled from a humanitarian perspective, prisoner exchanges are deeply political matters. There's a near-zero possibility for Kyiv to hand over the POWs without conditions. For Ukraine, these captives serve as valuable bargaining chips in peace negotiations,” Lim said.

"So the question is, what can Seoul offer Kyiv?" he added.

Ukraine has long sought lethal arms supplies from South Korea — a request Seoul has rejected so far. While arms support or intelligence cooperation remains a potential bargaining chip for South Korea, the nation currently lacks effective leadership to make swift decisions on these sensitive issues.

President Yoon Suk Yeol is currently facing an impeachment trial at the Constitutional Court over his botched martial law declaration late last year. A ruling is expected as early as mid-March, and if upheld, South Korea would have to elect a new president within 60 days.

“Our diplomats and intelligence officials will be limited from making bold moves under these circumstances,” Lim said. “The issue of North Korean defectors is highly sensitive, and decisions are often made politically. If a new administration takes power in the coming months and disagrees with a decision made now, the officials involved may have to bear the consequences.”

Doo Jin-ho, a researcher at the Korea Institute for Defense Analyses, said Pyongyang is likely to use its own diplomatic channels to block the defection.

“The situation is very fluid and complicated,” Doo said. “The North Korean regime, which is highly sensitive about its human rights issues being exposed to the outside world, will try to prevent the soldier’s defection by pressuring Ukraine through Russia.”

“Our government should request the U.S. to address the North Korean POW issue in the ongoing peace talks from a human rights perspective while also actively raising awareness about this issue in the international community,” he added.

The Ukrainian Embassy in Seoul was not immediately available for comment in response to The Korea Times' inquiry about negotiations with South Korea regarding the POW issue.