South Korean Foreign Minister Cho Tae-yul requested Kyiv’s cooperation regarding the treatment of North Korean prisoners of war during a phone call today with his Ukrainian counterpart Andrii Sybiha, according to a statement from Seoul’s Foreign Ministry.

North Korea has deployed thousands of soldiers in support of Russian forces fighting in Ukraine, according to Ukrainian, American, and South Korean estimates, marking Pyongyang’s first major involvement in a war since the 1950s.

Cho reaffirmed Seoul’s commitment to supporting the Ukrainian people and stated that South Korea will accept all North Korean soldiers captured by Ukraine if they wish to relocate to the South, according to the Foreign Ministry.

Kyiv claims that over 3,000 North Korean soldiers were killed or wounded in Russia by early January 2025.