Lee expresses regret over Zelensky's public disclosure of North Korean POWs sent to South Korea

President Lee Jae Myung, on a state visit to Mexico, expressed regret Thursday (local time) over Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky's public disclosure — made during a UN General Assembly address — that two North Korean prisoners of war captured by Ukrainian forces had been sent to South Korea. "I do not know what circumstances led to this, but I find it deeply regrettable," Lee said.

The remarks were a direct rebuff to opposition criticism demanding to know why the South Korean government had not publicly disclosed the transfer of the North Korean POWs.

In a post on X (formerly Twitter), Lee said Zelensky had "broken a confidentiality agreement by making this public."

"The repatriation of North Korean prisoners is an extremely sensitive issue with major implications for diplomacy, security and the situation on the Korean Peninsula," Lee said. "Given the various problems that public disclosure would create, keeping it confidential was the right course of action in every respect — and that is what we agreed to."

Lee also pushed back against conservative opposition parties that had criticized the government for not disclosing the repatriation, saying it was "wrong to condemn a reasonable and justified decision to keep the matter confidential."

He then said that those critics — regardless of what happened to inter-Korean relations, regardless of whether lives were lost or national interests damaged — would have "beaten the drum and danced in the streets to advertise the repatriation to the whole world just to take credit for it." "They simply cannot understand our government's efforts to keep this quiet — and may even wonder if there is something to hide," he said. "Nothing could be more cruel and irresponsible."

Lee said there had been no shortage of internal voices urging the government to go public with the repatriation, noting it "would have clearly helped the approval rating." "We call those who harm someone's life, national interests and security for petty personal gain murderers or traitors," he said. He added that he "earnestly prays for the early end of the inhumane wars in which countless people are killed or wounded and everything is destroyed."

Earlier, Zelensky said in his UN General Assembly address on Thursday (local time) that Ukraine had "recently sent two North Korean prisoners of war to the Republic of Korea."

Lee is scheduled to hold a summit with Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum on Thursday.