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A strange situation with the two North Korean soldiers captured by Ukraine during its incursion into the Kursk oblast. 1/8

They were handed over to South Korea, as Ukraine's president Volodymyr Zelensky confirmed recently. 2/8

South Korean authorities immediately freaked out, claiming that Ukraine had violated a non-disclosure agreement by making the transfer public. 3/8

For anyone who actually followed the story of Ukraine's capture of the North Korean soldiers, this presumed South Korean outrage is very odd, to say the least. 4/8

The transfer to South Korea had been discussed _publicly_ by Seoul and Kyiv for many months, and only a few months ago it was reported that the two sides had reached an agreement on it. 5/8

The reason it took so long was a debate about international norms: legally, Ukraine was obliged to hand the North Korean POWs over either to Russia (the side they had fought for) or to North Korea (their country of citizenship). 6/8

In the end, the transfer became possible on two grounds: (1) South Korea regards everyone in North Korea as its own citizens, and (2) the two soldiers themselves expressed a wish to be sent to the South. And that second point had been reported already in 2025. 7/8