Na Kyung-won sends thank-you letter to Zelensky over POW transfer; ruling party hits back

People Power Party lawmaker Na Kyung-won sent a letter of thanks to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky for allowing North Korean prisoners of war to travel to South Korea — the day after the government decided to recall its ambassador to Ukraine.

Na wrote on her Facebook page Friday that the Lee Jae Myung administration "cannot say a single word" to North Korea, which injured South Korean soldiers with landmines along the Military Demarcation Line, or to Russia, the aggressor nation, yet "repays Ukraine's grace of repatriating North Korean POWs with hostility." She said the government was "going completely in the wrong direction."

She added that the treatment of Ukraine was "utterly incomprehensible from the standpoint of national interest and security" and called it "far too severe." Even if there were some disagreements over whether the transfer should have been made public, she said, "the essential matter is a humanitarian and security achievement that both countries should put their heads together and be grateful for."

The letter Na made public welcomed and expressed gratitude for Zelensky's decision to honor the free will of the North Korean POWs and allow them to go to South Korea.

In the letter, Na cited media reports that Russia had proposed releasing thousands of detained Ukrainians in exchange for two North Korean POWs, and wrote that "the principle that every person's life and human rights are precious, and that one life cannot be used as a tool or sacrificed in exchange for another, is a value shared by free democratic nations such as South Korea and Ukraine."

The Democratic Party of Korea pushed back immediately. Floor spokesperson Jeon Eun-su said in a written briefing that a South Korean lawmaker had sent a thank-you letter to the head of a foreign state and criticized her own government "the very day after the South Korean government took the highest level of protest — recalling its ambassador — for the first time in 18 years." She said the diplomatic friction between the two countries was "something Ukraine brought upon itself."

Jeon also pointed to remarks by the chief of the Ukrainian presidential office, who had cited a DMZ landmine incident and claimed that armed conflict on the Korean Peninsula was only a matter of time, and to a Ukrainian presidential office official who publicly criticized South Korea for supplying petroleum products that eased Russia's fuel shortages. "Even if checking and criticizing the government is the opposition's role, know where to draw the line," Jeon said.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced Thursday that it had decided to recall Ambassador Park Ki-chang from Kyiv. It was the first time in 18 years that the government had summoned a sitting ambassador home in protest — the last instance being the recall of then-Ambassador to Japan Kwon Chul-hyun in 2008 over Japan's territorial claims to Dokdo.

Earlier, on Sept. 28, First Vice Foreign Minister Park Yun-ju summoned Ukrainian Chargé d'Affaires Andriy Beshkin to demand a formal explanation and apology.

The dispute began when Zelensky disclosed at the UN General Assembly on Sept. 23 (local time) that two North Korean POWs had been transferred to South Korea. The South Korean government has maintained that the two sides had agreed to keep the transfer confidential.

Ukraine's Foreign Ministry said the two sides had interpreted their confidentiality agreement differently, and even after the ambassador recall was announced, said it "remains open to resuming constructive dialogue."

Foreign Minister Cho Hyun said at a national audit Tuesday that South Korea had received a message containing "words of apology," but added that it fell "somewhat short of the level we had in mind."