Ukraine has transferred two North Korean soldiers captured while fighting alongside Russian forces to South Korea, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said this week.

Seoul, however, declined to confirm that the prisoners had arrived.

Zelenskyy announced the transfer Wednesday during a speech at the United Nations General Assembly in New York.

He offered few details about the operation, including when the prisoners were moved or how they reached South Korea.

A South Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokeswoman told Stars and Stripes by text Thursday that the government could not confirm Zelenskyy’s statement.

She cited privacy and security concerns surrounding the two soldiers.

According to the spokeswoman, South Korea has worked with Ukraine, other countries and agencies on the issue.

The ministry also would not discuss the prisoners’ movements or any negotiations between Seoul and Kyiv because of security concerns for the soldiers and their families.

“The South Korean government respects the free will of those people and has maintained the position that it should be resolved in accordance with international law and humanitarian principles,” she said.

Rep. Yu Yong-weon of the main opposition People Power Party told reporters Thursday that the prisoners arrived in South Korea several days earlier.

The Korea Herald reported his remarks from the National Assembly that day.

Zelenskyy first announced in January 2025 that Ukrainian forces had captured the two soldiers in Russia’s Kursk region.

North Korean troops had deployed there to support Moscow’s war against Ukraine.

The pair are the only surviving North Korean troops publicly known to have been captured by Ukraine since Russia invaded its neighbor in February 2022. Their capture provided a rare public glimpse of North Korean personnel serving alongside Russian forces.

During his U.N. address, Zelenskyy accused North Korean leader Kim Jong Un of using his citizens “like currency” in return for Russian assistance with North Korea’s ballistic missile and drone capabilities.

“These guys are not easy to capture alive,” Zelenskyy said. “One of them, when he realized he was going to be taken prisoner, tried to kill himself, and he was shocked that fate didn’t let him die.”

He continued: “And this is how they raise people in the North. It’s reality. They take away their freedom. They take away their right to choose, and they drill into them that they must die no matter what.”

Zelenskyy posted a video on X and Facebook on Jan. 12, 2025, that showed the wounded soldiers being questioned through an interpreter.

At the time, he offered to return them to North Korea in exchange for Ukrainian troops held by Russia.

The Ukrainian president also said there were “other options available” for soldiers who did not want to return to North Korea.

That left open the possibility that the prisoners could seek a different future rather than being sent back.

Zelenskyy later discussed the prisoners with South Korean President Lee Jae Myung. The two leaders agreed that the soldiers’ wishes should be respected when determining their future.

A South Korean Foreign Affairs Ministry spokesman said during a June briefing that Seoul would accept North Korean prisoners of war who wanted to defect. The government’s public position emphasized the soldiers’ own decisions, international law and humanitarian principles.

North Korea has sent approximately 13,000 troops to support Russia’s war effort, according to a BBC report published in July. About 3,000 of those troops died in combat during 2024.

Zelenskyy warned in June that as many as 50,000 additional North Korean troops could eventually be sent to the war, according to the same report.

His latest announcement places the two captured soldiers in South Korea, even as Seoul keeps the details firmly under wraps.