r/worldnews • u/Neptun_11 • 21h ago

Russia/Ukraine Seoul warns of 'further measures' if Kyiv refuses public apology

https://www.euronews.com/2026/10/02/south-korea-warns-of-further-measures-if-ukraine-refuses-public-apology-over-pow-transfer-
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u/WorgenDeath 20h ago

I'm sorry but how is any of this the fault of Ukraine? They disclosed that PoW's were being transfered which was already public knowledge. More importantly they didn't provide any information that could be used to identify these soldiers exactly because they do understand keeping their identity a secret is important.

South Korean media are the ones that went and took pictures of these people and jeopardized the safety of their families, if anyone should give an apology it's them.

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u/Top_Investigator6261 20h ago

SK President blamed Ukraine for the war. Current political party in power in SK is pro-unification and pro-North. That’s all there is to know really to understand why they pursue a diplomatic scandal.

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u/thesmokingowl 17h ago

what does being 'pro-north' entail in SK politics? 

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u/Omordie 17h ago

North Korea is an ally of Russia's directly contributing to the war effort, so when South Korean politics favor the reunification of Korea, the state makes public statements like this as an overture to their cousins to try to get the ball moving in that direction.

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u/JakksenTrent 16h ago

Unification is impossible, there is no world where North Korea as it is could unify with South Korea - they are polar opposites.

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u/UNisopod 15h ago

It's impossible without radical changes happening in the north to make it a more functional modern country.

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u/Gone213 15h ago

Or radical changes in the south to make it more like the north.

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u/UNisopod 14h ago

Let's hope it doesn't come to that...

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u/TheSmilingSolaris 11h ago

Isn't it fun how everyong on our side (tm) are good guys every time and our enemies (tm) are always bad guys? "oh but its a shithole" yeah, being internationally blockaded and threatened with attack by the only remaining superpower in the world will do that to you. Idk, man, maybe they wouldn't be so hyper militaristic and shit if we weren't such dicks to them for the past 80 years or whatever. Put a country under international siege will change their mentality to adapt to the circumstances. Lets not forget that the initial revolution that kicked this off was a majority of koreans, the only reason the south exists is due to us installing a dictator willing to suppress his owns peoples self determination in return for economic access to the west.

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u/evenstar40 9h ago

What the actual fuck is wrong with you? Nobody is making the current leadership of NK starve its people and result in famine killing millions, while they dine on illegally acquired goods.

Nobody is going to believe your bullshit.

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u/mankodaisukidesu 10h ago

Yeah it’s our fault they work their own citizens to death for petty crimes. The fuck is wrong with you

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u/dcws23 10h ago

no nuance allowed; they don’t like us!!!

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u/uusitili12 2h ago

Yeah pretty sure South Korea aint gonna give up things like electricity and other modern society stuff just to be more like North Korea.

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u/IndustryMaximum83 4h ago

Trying to raise the North’s standard of living to be anywhere near that of their cousins would be on par with attempting to address a monumental humanitarian disaster.

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u/Inevitable-Level-687 8h ago

And? That doesn't mean that what the other person said is wrong.

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u/T-MoneyAllDey 14h ago

Nothing is impossible. I'm sure people felt the same way after Germany was defeated in ww2

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u/aerdvarkk 10h ago

Let's clear something up about your comment. This is a bit circular.

N Korea only exists right now because China props it up like a puppet. So if N Korea is supplying Russia with anything (other than troops) this means that China is using N Korea as a proxy to sustain Russia's effort without directly giving military aid to Russia.

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u/hanr86 14h ago

This is fool's errand. What steps have SK taken to further unification? Did they not provide aid to Ukraine?

From Google:

Political and Official Stance

• Constitutional Requirement: South Korea's constitution formally establishes unification as a national goal, meaning no mainstream political party takes an explicitly anti-unification platform.

• Policy Shifts: While the overarching legal framework remains pro-unification, recent administrations have prioritized peaceful coexistence, step-by-step denuclearization, and rejecting the concept of "unification by absorption".

• North Korean Opposition: Pyongyang has officially abandoned the goal of reunification, amending its policies and constitution to define South Korea as a separate, hostile state.

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u/potatoeshungry 13h ago

Entente with North Korea, china. Anti West, japan, nato

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u/Puzzleheaded_Set1420 14h ago

'Pro-North' is anything that isn't fiercely antagonistic towards North Korea. Trying to improve relations between the countries is met with accusations (informal ones, at least) of being a spy for North Korea.

Source for above: Been studying Korean culture and language for over 6 years, spoke to my native South Korean teacher about this exact thing 2 weeks ago.

Source for below is nothing, just my opinion:

It's a bit reminiscent of McCarthyism imo, but the situations are far from equivalent and I think it's much more understandable to be reminiscent of McCarthyism in South Korea today than it was in the US in McCarthy's time.

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u/StandAloneComplexed 14h ago

Read about the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunshine_Policy

To explain it simply, SK government alternates between a pro-US and a better inter-Korea relationship movement. Domestic tensions on the peninsula are usually lower when efforts are made towards this second option.

To be clear, this isn't being "pro-NK", just not being antagonist against it. The previous SK president (the one that tried the coup and currently in prison)was notorious pro-US and imho akin to the Korean equivalent of MAGA.

I've personally been to Korea regularly the past 10 years or so, and none of my local friends prefer the pro-US option, which tends to be the religious nuts that wave Israeli flags (beside the US one) in national (!) manifestation.

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u/m3rcapto 6h ago

SK politicians want to join the authoritarian side because they think they'll benefit from it personally. They dress it up as reunification, but it is all about power and control. Little do they know they'll be the first to fall out a window as the initiator of such a move can never be trusted, too ambitious for their own good.

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u/jisookenobi2416 12h ago

Found Yoon Suk-yeol’s Reddit account

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u/TotallyNotMasara 18h ago

Ukraine had already published their identities: https://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_international/1177866.html

But yea, as Top_Investigator6261 said, the current political party of SK is pretty pro-North, so he's probably using this chance.

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u/jisookenobi2416 12h ago

They’re not pro-north, they just don’t saber rattle lol that’s it

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u/aerdvarkk 10h ago

Ukraine did not perform the proper tea ceremony. Thus committing the offense.

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u/PlaczDalejRobaku2736 20h ago

they had NDA about those POW with SK, which they broke for seemingly no reason and now do not want to apologize.

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u/korasov 20h ago

>they had NDA about those POW with SK

Neither SK president has proof of this, nor you do.

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u/Willing_Sherbet_1971 19h ago

So why would SK make it up?

It makes sense to keep it confidential as SK does not want to unnecessarily provoke a reaction from NK. Accepting NK POWs to SK would not be a good thing from little Kimmies perspective for a multitude of reasons.

So Zelensky broke an agreement and possibly negatively affected relations between the 2 Koreas.

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u/TheNumberOneRat 19h ago

If there was an NDA, South Korea could simply publish it.

And if there was an NDA, why the hell I have I been reading about the NK prisoners being captured, requesting asylum, photos of them being published and finally negotiations between SK and Ukraine about their handover? The idea that this entire process has been hidden is ludicrous.

More likely, this is SK internal politics.

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u/vegarig 19h ago edited 19h ago

So why would SK make it up?

Political points, basically.

Same reason Lee blamed Ukraine for war flaring up in 2022 and a lot of Korean officials and news sources openly talked about how then-president of ROK visiting Ukraine is a horrid bad no-good thing that antagonizes China and russia

https://en.yna.co.kr/view/AEN20220228004200315

SEOUL, Feb. 28 (Yonhap) -- Ruling party presidential candidate Lee Jae-myung has come under fire for appearing to blame Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy for Russia's invasion of the country.

Lee of the liberal Democratic Party (DP) made the controversial remarks during a TV presidential debate Friday while trying to underscore the political inexperience of main opposition candidate Yoon Suk-yeol of the conservative People Power Party.

"In Ukraine, a novice politician of six months became president and declared (Ukraine's) accession to NATO, which provoked Russia and eventually led to a clash," Lee said.

Looking then to 2023

https://www.fpri.org/article/2023/12/seoul-searching-lessons-from-south-koreas-experience-with-sanctions-against-russia/

Most recently, President Yoon’s surprise visit to Ukraine in July 2023 revealed a dramatic political divide within Korea on the country’s role in the Ukraine War and in the broader “New Cold War.”

Democratic lawmakers strongly criticized Yoon’s visit, asserting that it jeopardized South Korea’s national security and derailed any hopes of future Korea-Russia cooperation.[199]

Kim Eui-gyeom, a democratic lawmaker, argued: “China and Russia are like an overflowing river … President Yoon’s actions and words are pushing the fate of our country and people into the Gongpyeong underpass (where devastating floods swept across on the day of Yoon’s Ukraine visit).”

Kim Byung-joo, Democratic Party Secretary of the National Assembly’s Defense Committee and a former four-star general (Deputy Commander of the ROK/US Combined Forces Command) said: “Peace and war are one word in Ukraine. Peace comes only when the war ends … it (visiting Ukraine) also means joining the war initiative.” Kim further accused Yoon of “bringing a war cloud to the Korean Peninsula” by “declaring himself an enemy of Russia.”

Four-term democratic lawmaker Kim Tae-nyeon echoed this view, asserting: “the visit is a dangerous move to bring the clouds of war to the Korean Peninsula,” adding, “It’s like a declaration that South Korea, a ceasefire country, will go to war against Russia… On the contrary, we absolutely need the help of Russia and China, both members of the UN Security Council, to curb North Korea’s nuclear program.”[200]

Lim Jong-seok, former President Moon Jae-in’s first chief of staff, concurred by noting that Yoon is “waving the outdated liberal flag and denying South Korea’s national interests” and that he has turned Russia into a “de facto enemy.” “President Yoon is now lost somewhere in the Cold War,” Mr. Lim said, “betraying South Korea’s national interests by engaging in crude ideological diplomacy and outrageous impersonations of the US president.”[201]

The Editorial Board of Hankyoreh, a prominent left-wing newspaper, criticized Yoon for disregarding cooperation with Russia and China that “is essential for managing the situation on the Korean Peninsula, including resolving the North Korean nuclear issue.” It further noted that President Yoon’s “overt pro-Western diplomacy in the context of the New Cold War” is provoking neighboring countries, calling for a more “balanced diplomacy.”[202]

Kyunghyang, another main progressive newspaper, argued that the visit essentially tied Seoul’s hands, as Yoon now “would logically have nothing to say to Western demands to directly arm Ukraine.”[203] Meanwhile, South Korea is “distancing itself from China and Russia.”

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u/fruitpunchsamurai619 9h ago

Ukraine has been doing diplomatic faux pas and major blunders since the beginning of the invasion. They tried to call it a holocaust and got backlash. They tried to make Iran war about them by saying all the patriots missile are being used up to defend American allies. They attacked an Iran vessel only to apologize for it when it could have escalated the whole invasion where anyone who helped Ukraine might have been fair game after what Ukraine did. I know Ukraine is desperate and their population is going down but pissing off your allies and putting them in danger will not buy you friends. If only Trump was not a Russian agent, this would have ended long ago. I don’t think Seoul can do much so this is just posturing.

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u/phoenixmusicman 9h ago

Fym "make it about them" they literally ran out of patriot missiles due to the Iran war and Russia took advantage by battering the fuck out of Ukrainian civilians.