South Korea said it’s willing to accept any North Korean soldiers captured in Ukraine who express a desire to defect to the South, an idea that emerges amid reports of thousands of North Korean soldiers sustaining casualties in support of Russian troops.
"North Korean soldiers are our citizens under the Constitution and respecting individuals’ free will is in line with the international law and customs,” South Korea’s foreign ministry said in a statement on Wednesday.
Ukraine earlier said it captured two North Koreans fighting for Russia in the Kursk region and that it was ready to return the captured soldiers if Pyongyang can facilitate an exchange for Ukrainian soldiers held in Russia. Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy earlier said about 4,000 North Korean soldiers were killed or injured in the Kursk region, a figure that hasn’t been verified.
South Korea’s comments came after a captured soldier said in an interview with the Chosun Ilbo newspaper that he wants to seek asylum in South Korea. The newspaper quoted an unidentified Ukrainian official saying that whether that might be possible would depend on the views of the South Korean government, without elaborating further.
South Korea said it has delivered its intent to its Ukrainian counterparts and that they would continue necessary consultations. "They should not be sent against their will to a place where there’s a threat of persecution,” the ministry added.
Top officials from the U.S. and Russia met earlier this week for a first round of talks over the war in Ukraine and raised the possibility of broader cooperation, signaling President Donald Trump’s desire to reboot a battered relationship.
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