South Korea is recalling its ambassador to Ukraine over Kyiv’s disclosure that it had handed two captured North Korean soldiers to Seoul, Yonhap reported on October 8.
The Foreign Ministry said in a brief statement that the government had “decided to recall its ambassador to Ukraine” and hoped the pending issues between the two countries would be resolved smoothly, the Korea JoongAng Daily reported. It said it would keep consulting Kyiv, but gave no date for the return of Ambassador Park Hee-chang.
Recalling an ambassador is a sharp diplomatic protest, short of downgrading relations. It also comes as Kyiv has accused fuel shipments loaded at South Korean ports of helping Russia offset fuel shortages after Ukrainian drone strikes damaged its refining capacity.
The row began on September 23, when President Volodymyr Zelenskiy told the UN General Assembly that Ukraine had transferred to South Korea two North Korean soldiers captured fighting for Russia in the Kursk region in January 2025. Seoul says the two sides agreed to keep the transfer secret to protect the men and their relatives in North Korea, and that Kyiv itself had asked for confidentiality. The presidential office voiced strong regret on September 27 over what it called Ukraine’s denial of that agreement, and the Foreign Ministry summoned Ukraine’s envoy the following day.
Kyiv has disputed Seoul’s account. Presidential communications adviser Dmytro Lytvyn wrote on Facebook that no non-disclosure agreement existed, Ukrinform reported. South Korean President Lee Jae Myung warned on October 2 of “further measures” unless Ukraine acknowledged the agreement and apologised, while Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha called the dispute a “diplomatic misunderstanding”.
Foreign Minister Cho Hyun told a parliamentary audit on October 6 that Sybiha had sent a message that “included words of apology” but fell short of Seoul’s expectations. “We intend to take firm measures,” Cho said, according to The Korea Times, which reported that a recall and cuts to aid were among the options under review.
Ukrainian Foreign Ministry spokesman Heorhii Tykhyi said on October 7 that the two sides had agreed the details of the transfer but disagreed on how confidentiality should be interpreted, adding that Kyiv had acted on the prisoners’ written consent and an agreement between the two leaders. He stopped short of the formal apology Seoul has demanded. Kyiv had not commented publicly on the recall by the time of writing.
The fuel dispute stems from an investigation by The Guardian, published on October 6, which found that more than 176,000 tonnes of fuel, mostly diesel, were loaded at South Korean ports in July and August and shipped to Russia’s Far East. Seven tankers made 14 voyages, and three of them are under UK or EU sanctions. One of the sanctioned vessels took on its cargo in a ship-to-ship transfer in South Korean waters, which obscures its origin. The paper said the trade did not appear to breach South Korean law.
Russia, normally a big diesel exporter, began buying South Korean fuel in late July, as Ukraine’s refinery strikes knocked out a growing share of its processing capacity, according to the IntelliNews refinery damage ledger. By August, shipments from South Korea accounted for 112,000 tonnes of the 368,000 tonnes of oil products Russia imported by sea, second only to India, according to figures cited by The Guardian.
Vladyslav Vlasiuk, Zelenskiy’s commissioner for sanctions policy, wrote on Facebook on October 6 that the shipments stood in “stark contrast” to South Korea’s sanctions policy and that imports from South Korea “effectively helped offset the impact of Russia’s loss of domestic refining capacity”. Seoul’s presidential office called his remarks “inaccurate and inappropriate”.
The Foreign Ministry, trade ministry and customs authority said in a joint statement on October 8 that refined petroleum products, including diesel and jet fuel, are not covered by South Korea’s export controls on Russia, and that no fuel exports to Russia had cleared customs from 2025 through August. The ministry said it had not established whether the fuel loaded at South Korean ports was of South Korean origin and was checking the vessels’ routes. South Korea’s exports to Russia fell to $4bn in 2025 from $10bn in 2021, according to the statement.
The Russian shipments began around the time Lee pledged $100mn for Ukraine’s reconstruction at the Nato summit in Turkey in July, the Kyiv Post noted. The two prisoners at the centre of the diplomatic row are now under the protection of the National Intelligence Service. They are the only North Koreans confirmed captured out of an estimated 15,000 troops Pyongyang has sent to fight for Russia.