SEOUL, October 05 (AJP) - Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said South Korea had requested the transfer of two captured North Korean soldiers to Seoul, while claiming Russia has shared jet-powered drone technology with Pyongyang.
"South Korea asked us to give them North Korean soldiers," Zelensky told reporters Sunday. "By the way, according to their constitution, they are their citizens … so we gave them these two guys."
The remarks came amid a diplomatic dispute between Seoul and Kyiv over Zelensky's disclosure at the United Nations General Assembly last month that Ukraine had transferred the two North Korean prisoners of war to South Korea.
South Korea says the two sides had agreed to keep the transfer confidential, partly because of concerns over the soldiers' safety and their families in North Korea. Seoul's National Intelligence Service said last week that Ukraine had initially requested strict confidentiality during discussions over the transfer.
President Lee Jae Myung has demanded that Kyiv acknowledge the confidentiality agreement and apologize for breaching it. Zelensky did not directly address the dispute over the agreement in his latest remarks.
Zelensky also said he believed Moscow had transferred technology behind its latest jet-powered drones to North Korea as military cooperation between the two countries deepens.
Asked whether Russia had shared the technology with Pyongyang, Zelensky said, "Yes, of course."
"They are sharing with North Korea all the technologies," he said. "I don't know about the ballistic and etc, but I think, yes, because North Korea helped them with missiles."
North Korea has supplied Russia with artillery shells and ballistic missiles during the war, while thousands of North Korean troops have been deployed to Russia and gained battlefield experience, according to Ukraine and South Korean and Western officials.
Zelensky said captured North Korean troops indicated that the soldiers had received training and accumulated experience in drone operations and countering electronic warfare, warning that such battlefield knowledge could eventually spread through the North Korean military.
South Korea and Western countries have repeatedly raised concerns that Moscow could provide Pyongyang with advanced military technology in return for North Korea's support for Russia's war in Ukraine.
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