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Zelenskiy Says Ready to Exchange N. Korean Soldiers for Ukrainians Held in Russia

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy attends a joint press conference with OSCE Chairperson-in-Office and Minister for Foreign Affairs of Finland Elina Valtonen (not pictured), amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Kyiv, Ukraine January 8, 2025. REUTERS/Alina Smutko
Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy attends a joint press conference with OSCE Chairperson-in-Office and Minister for Foreign Affairs of Finland Elina Valtonen (not pictured), amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Kyiv, Ukraine January 8, 2025. REUTERS/Alina Smutko
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Zelenskiy Says Ready to Exchange N. Korean Soldiers for Ukrainians Held in Russia

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy attends a joint press conference with OSCE Chairperson-in-Office and Minister for Foreign Affairs of Finland Elina Valtonen (not pictured), amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Kyiv, Ukraine January 8, 2025. REUTERS/Alina Smutko
Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy attends a joint press conference with OSCE Chairperson-in-Office and Minister for Foreign Affairs of Finland Elina Valtonen (not pictured), amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Kyiv, Ukraine January 8, 2025. REUTERS/Alina Smutko

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Sunday Kyiv is ready to hand over North Korean soldiers to their leader Kim Jong Un if he can organize their exchange for Ukrainians held captive in Russia.
"In addition to the first captured soldiers from North Korea, there will undoubtedly be more. It's only a matter of time before our troops manage to capture others," Zelenskiy said on the social media platform X.
Zelenskiy said on Saturday that Ukraine had captured two North Korean soldiers in Russia's Kursk region, the first time Ukraine has announced the capture of North Korean soldiers alive since their entry into the nearly three-year-old war last autumn.
Ukrainian and Western assessments say that some 11,000 troops from Russia's ally North Korea have been deployed in the Kursk region to support Moscow's forces. Russia has neither confirmed nor denied their presence, Reuters reported.
Zelenskiy has said Russian and North Korean forces had suffered heavy losses.
"Ukraine is ready to hand over Kim Jong Un's soldiers to him if he can organize their exchange for our warriors who are being held captive in Russia," Zelenskiy said.
Zelenskiy posted a short video showing the interrogation of two men who are presented as North Korean soldiers. One of them is lying on a bed with bandaged hands, the other is sitting with a bandage on his jaw.
One of the men said through an interpreter that he did not know he was fighting against Ukraine and had been told he was on a training exercise.
He said he hid in a shelter during the offensive and was found a couple of days later. He said that if he was ordered to return to North Korea, he would, but said he was ready to stay in Ukraine if given the chance.
Reuters could not verify the video.
Zelenskiy said that for those North Korean soldiers who did not wish to return home, there may be other options available and "those who express a desire to bring peace closer by spreading the truth about this war in the Korean (language) will be given that opportunity."
Zelenskiy provided no specific details.

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South Korea, Japan Foreign Ministers Stress Security Ties amid Political Turmoil

South Korean Foreign Minister Cho Tae-yul, right, and Japanese Foreign Minister Takeshi Iwaya, hold a joint news conference following their meeting at the foreign ministry in Seoul, South Korea, Monday, Jan. 13, 2025. (Jung Yeon-je/Pool Photo via AP)
South Korean Foreign Minister Cho Tae-yul, right, and Japanese Foreign Minister Takeshi Iwaya, hold a joint news conference following their meeting at the foreign ministry in Seoul, South Korea, Monday, Jan. 13, 2025. (Jung Yeon-je/Pool Photo via AP)
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South Korea, Japan Foreign Ministers Stress Security Ties amid Political Turmoil

South Korean Foreign Minister Cho Tae-yul, right, and Japanese Foreign Minister Takeshi Iwaya, hold a joint news conference following their meeting at the foreign ministry in Seoul, South Korea, Monday, Jan. 13, 2025. (Jung Yeon-je/Pool Photo via AP)
South Korean Foreign Minister Cho Tae-yul, right, and Japanese Foreign Minister Takeshi Iwaya, hold a joint news conference following their meeting at the foreign ministry in Seoul, South Korea, Monday, Jan. 13, 2025. (Jung Yeon-je/Pool Photo via AP)

Foreign ministers from South Korea and Japan met in Seoul on Monday to discuss strengthening their relations in the face of increasing security challenges in the region and political tumult in the host nation.

It marked the highest-level diplomatic meeting between the countries since South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol's short-lived imposition of martial law last month, a move that has triggered political turmoil in one of Asia's most vibrant democracies.

It also came amid heightened concerns about North Korea's missile testing and deepening security pact with Russia, and China's increasingly muscular attempts to assert its maritime claims in the South and East China Seas.

"The security situation in this region is becoming very severe, and in that strategic environment, the importance of Japan-ROK relations has not changed, and in fact has become increasingly important," Japan's Takeshi Iwaya said at a joint press conference with South Korea's Cho Tae-yul.

Iwaya is also due to meet acting South Korean President Choi Sang-mok, who is standing in for impeached President Yoon.

Yoon has been holed up in his hillside villa in Seoul since parliament voted to suspend him last month over his martial law decree on Dec. 3 with investigators vowing to arrest him in a separate probe into possible insurrection.

At their press conference, Iwaya and Choi also both reiterated the importance of developing three-way security cooperation with their shared ally, the United States.

With the administration of US President-elect Donald Trump set to begin on Jan. 20, none of the original leaders who established the security pact between the countries in 2023 - US President Joe Biden, Yoon, and former Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida - will remain in power.

Yoon had made it a diplomatic priority to mend ties with Tokyo - often strained by historic issues - and pursue a joint security drive with Washington to tackle North Korea's military threats.

In a nod to those efforts to put aside historic issues, Iwaya earlier on Monday visited the Seoul National Cemetery which honors Korean veterans, including those who died seeking independence from Japanese colonial rule which ended in 1945.

Also on Monday, Japan, the Philippines and the United States vowed to further deepen cooperation under a trilateral arrangement in the face of rising tensions in Asia's waters, following a call among their leaders.

Last week, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on a visit to South Korea expressed confidence in Seoul's democratic process, although he said Washington had expressed "serious concerns" over some of the actions Yoon took over the course of his martial law declaration.

Despite polls showing a majority of South Koreans disapprove of Yoon's martial law declaration and support his impeachment, his ruling People Power Party (POP) has enjoyed somewhat of a revival.

Support for the PPP stood at 40.8% in the latest Realmeter poll released on Monday, while the main opposition Democratic Party's support stood at 42.2%, within a margin of error and down from a gap of 10.8% from last week, the poll said.