South Koreas President Lee threatens action against Ukraine over transfer of North Korean soldiers

SEOUL, Oct 2 (Reuters) – South Korean President Lee Jae Myung on Friday threatened unspecified measures against Ukraine unless Kyiv acknowledged a confidentiality agreement that Seoul says covered the transfer of two captured North Korean soldiers and issued an apology.“If the refusal to acknowledge the facts and issue a public apology continues, we will take ​additional measures,” Lee said in a post on X.Lee also expressed “grave regret” over what he described as Ukrainian ​remarks about an imminent military clash between North and South Korea, saying they amounted to encouraging war ⁠on the Korean peninsula.Seoul and Kyiv have been locked in a diplomatic dispute since Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy announced at ​the United Nations General Assembly last month that Ukraine had transferred two North Korean prisoners of war captured while fighting for Russia to ​South Korea.Seoul subsequently accused Kyiv of breaching an agreement to keep the transfer confidential to protect the soldiers, while Ukrainian officials denied any such agreement existed.Kyiv’s embassy in Seoul did not immediately reply to a request for comment on Lee’s remarks.Ukraine was seeking ​to mend ties with South Korea, Ukrainian media reported, quoting Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha.“I would not like to call this an incident.Let’s say, it’s a diplomatic misunderstanding,” Sybiha told journalists at an event, according to a report on Thursday on news website nv.ua and other media.A senior South Korean Foreign Ministry official told reporters on Friday that the countries’ foreign ministers had been discussing how Kyiv could address Seoul’s concerns, including a possible apology, according to South Korean media reports.

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