The Koreas | Diplomacy | East Asia

South Korea Recalls Ambassador, Demands Public Apology From Ukraine

A diplomatic rift is growing after a North Korean prisoner transfer that Kyiv revealed against Seoul’s wishes.

South Korea decided on October 8 to recall Ambassador Park Ki-chang from Ukraine. It’s Seoul’s first ambassador recall since 2008, when South Korea withdrew its envoy from Japan over a territorial claim to the Dokdo islets.

The decision came 15 days after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy disclosed the transfer of two captured North Korean soldiers to South Korea in a speech to the United Nations General Assembly. Seoul says the two governments had agreed to keep the transfer confidential. However, Kyiv first denied any such agreement before its Foreign Ministry attributed the dispute to differing interpretations.

The two soldiers at the center of the dispute were captured in January 2025 in the Kursk region of Russia. North Korea had sent troops there to support the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The captured soldiers arrived in South Korea in mid-September after saying they wished to settle there.

Zelenskyy’s public announcement of their arrival drew a response from South Korean President Lee Jae-myung on September 24 in a post on the social platform X. He called the disclosure deeply regrettable. Lee also cited the problems that disclosure could cause.

Kyiv rejected that account the next day. Dmytro Lytvyn, a communications adviser to Zelenskyy, denied that any confidentiality agreement existed.

The South Korean presidential office voiced strong regret over the disclosure and Ukraine’s denial on September 27. It demanded an official explanation and apology. It also signaled that additional measures were under consideration. Seong Ghi-hong, senior presidential secretary for public relations, said that Ukraine’s had sought the secrecy itself. He added that Kyiv had cited possible criticism at home for giving up a chance to swap the soldiers for Ukrainian prisoners held by Russia.

The next day, First Vice Foreign Minister Park Yoon-joo summoned Andrii Vieshkin, who is Ukraine’s acting ambassador in Seoul. The vice minister repeated the demands to him.

Still, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha described the dispute on October 1 as a diplomatic misunderstanding. Sybiha did not offer the public apology that Seoul had demanded.

In a post on X the next day, Lee wrote that Ukraine had made the South Korean head of state a “liar” by denying the agreement. He also warned of further measures unless Kyiv publicly apologized.

Lee also broadened his criticism to remarks by Kyrylo Budanov, head of the Ukrainian presidential office. Budanov had warned in an interview on September 27 that tension along the inter-Korean border was rising by the day. Days earlier, suspected North Korean mines had exploded inside the Demilitarized Zone between the two Koreas and wounded three South Korean soldiers. So Lee accused Kyiv of speaking of an imminent clash between the two Koreas as if wishing for war. 

On October 6, Foreign Minister Cho........

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