Seoul plans to consult with Kyiv about transferring captured North Korean soldiers to South Korea if they wish to return.
This was reported by Foreign Ministry spokesman Lee Jae Woong.
"Since North Korean soldiers are our citizens under the Constitution, the government plans to hold talks with Ukraine if they demand their return to South Korea," he said.
The Constitution of South Korea defines the entire Korean Peninsula as its territory and recognizes all its inhabitants as its citizens.
However, neither of the two captured soldiers expressed any intention to leave Ukraine for South Korea.
President Volodymyr Zelensky said that Ukraine is ready to hand over captured North Korean soldiers to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un if he organizes their exchange for Ukrainian fighters.
The Ukrainian Defense Forces in Kursk captured two North Korean soldiers. They were wounded, but survived. One of them says that he was supposedly going for training, not for a war against Ukraine.
Participation of the DPRK military in the war in Ukraine
Ukrainian intelligence reported on October 24, 2024, that the first soldiers from the DPRK had already arrived at the front — in the Kursk region. There are approximately 12 000 soldiers, including 500 officers and three generals.
According to sources in the American newspaper The New York Times, Russia has assembled a group of 50 000 soldiers for an offensive in the Kursk region. The North Koreans are being trained in artillery strikes, basic infantry tactics and, most importantly, trench clearing, American officials say. This means that at least some of the North Korean soldiers will be used in frontal attacks on Ukrainian positions.
Ukraine later received confirmation that the Russians had begun using a "significant number" of soldiers from the DPRK in assault operations.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that more than 3 000 soldiers from the DPRK have already been killed or wounded. South Korean intelligence believes that 300 soldiers have been killed in the war and about 2 700 have been wounded.
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