South Korea’s ambassador to Ukraine, Park Ki-chang, returned home on Saturday morning after being recalled amid an escalating diplomatic dispute between Seoul and Kyiv over the handover of two North Korean soldiers captured while fighting alongside Russian forces.
Seoul recalls ambassador and demands Kyiv apologise
South Korea’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement: "We inform you that Park Ki-chang, our ambassador to Ukraine, returned to the country this morning." Seoul announced on Thursday that it had recalled its ambassador after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy disclosed before the United Nations General Assembly last month that his country had handed the two soldiers over to South Korea after capturing them.
Zelenskyy’s statement angered South Korean authorities, who said it breached an agreement to keep the case confidential in order to protect the soldiers and their relatives from possible repercussions inside North Korea. Ukrainian officials, meanwhile, denied that such an agreement existed between the two countries.
Seoul also summoned Ukraine’s ambassador and threatened to take "additional measures", without specifying their nature at the time. South Korean President Lee Jae-myung called on Kyiv to issue a formal apology for disclosing details of the case.
Mutual criticism complicates relations between Seoul and Kyiv
The South Korean decision coincides with Ukrainian criticism following a report by the British newspaper The Guardian this week that 176,000 tonnes of products, "mainly diesel", had been shipped from South Korea to Russia during July and August. On Thursday, the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry spokesperson said: "We are convinced that diplomacy should prevail over emotion," expressing Kyiv’s hope for a "constructive dialogue" with Seoul to resolve the dispute between the two sides.
Ukrainian forces captured the two North Korean soldiers in the Kursk region in January 2025. Zelenskyy said at the time that they had been fighting in units sent by Pyongyang to support Russian forces, and posted photographs of them on his account on the X platform.
The two soldiers are the first North Korean prisoners of war since Pyongyang entered the Russia-Ukraine war in 2024.
A South Korean lawmaker previously said that they had expressed a desire to live a "normal life" in South Korea, whose constitution considers all Koreans, including North Korean residents, to be South Korean citizens.
