Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he is ready to hand over soldiers to North Korea if the country’s authoritarian leader Kim Jong Un agrees to exchange Ukrainian prisoners of war in Russia. Zelensky said one of the North Korean soldiers wanted to stay in Ukraine, while the other wanted to return to his country, according to the interview videos released by his government.
– If Kim Jong Un remembers these citizens of his at all and is able to organize an exchange for our warriors who are being held in Russia, we are ready to transfer such soldiers. There will definitely be more prisoners of war from North Korea – said Zelenski in his address on Sunday evening.
He said in a separate post on social media platform X that “there may be other options” for North Korean prisoners who do not want to return.
In a closed-door briefing at South Korea’s National Assembly, the National Intelligence Service confirmed its involvement in the interrogation of North Korean soldiers by Ukrainian authorities. The agency said the soldiers had not expressed a request to relocate to South Korea, according to two representatives who attended the meeting.
The agency said it is willing to discuss the matter with the Ukrainian authorities if the soldiers eventually request to go to South Korea. About 34,000 North Koreans have defected to capitalist rival South Korea to escape economic hardship and political oppression in the country, mostly since the late 1990s, Reuters reports.
(Vijesti.ba / FENA)
