Yoo Yong-weon, a lawmaker of South Korea’s ruling People Power Party, speaks during an interview with Yonhap News Agency about his recent meetings with two North Korean soldiers captured by Ukraine at the National Assembly in Seoul, South Korea, 07 March 2025. The two photographs Yoo is holding were taken from his meetings with the soldiers in Kyiv on 25 February 2025. Photo by YONHAP / EPA
March 24 (Asia Today) — Ukraine’s Defense Ministry has told a South Korean civic group that two captured North Korean soldiers are recognized as prisoners of war and are being protected under the Geneva Convention on the treatment of POWs.
According to a reply disclosed Tuesday by an emergency committee campaigning for the soldiers’ transfer, the Ukrainian ministry said the men are being guaranteed contact with the outside world, access by international monitors and human rights organizations, and other protections required under international humanitarian law.
The ministry also said the principle of non-refoulement, which bars forced return to a country where a person may face harm, is being taken into account in their treatment.
The statement aligns with remarks made March 6 by South Korean Foreign Minister Cho Hyun, who said he had received assurances from his Ukrainian counterpart that the soldiers would not be repatriated to North Korea or Russia. (Yonhap News)
The civic group, however, said the two men remain in a military detention facility under the authority of Ukraine’s Defense Ministry and still hold legal POW status, leaving open the possibility that they could become subjects of negotiations between governments.
The group said the soldiers should be shifted from military custody to an internationally protected status. It called for their transfer to a civilian protection facility and urged direct involvement by the U.N. refugee agency, the U.N. human rights office and the International Committee of the Red Cross.
It also proposed that procedures begin to determine whether the two soldiers should receive refugee status or another form of international protection.
Photo made available by the Emergency Committee for the Free Repatriation of North Korean Soldiers shows a reply from Ukraine’s Defense Ministry regarding two captured North Korean soldiers. /Provided by the committee
— Reported by Asia Today; translated by UPI
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Original Korean report: https://www.asiatoday.co.kr/kn/view.php?key=20260324010007333