South Korean Foreign Minister Cho Hyun has raised the possibility that Seoul could sever diplomatic relations with Ukraine if the dispute between the two countries escalates further, infohub.kz reports.
According to local media, the foreign minister made the remark at a meeting of the parliamentary committee on foreign affairs and unification. One lawmaker recalled the recall of the ambassador and the subsequent decision to withdraw staff from the diplomatic mission, and asked the minister whether those measures pointed to a crisis effectively tantamount to a break in diplomatic relations.
"If the escalation continues, I think that possibility also exists," the South Korean foreign minister said.
The row between Ukraine and South Korea escalated after South Korean President Lee Jae Myung criticized Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who said during the UN General Assembly in New York that Ukraine had recently sent two North Korean soldiers to South Korea. President Lee Jae Myung later issued another statement directed at Ukraine over the scandal involving North Korean prisoners of war.
After those statements, Ukraine's Foreign Ministry said the exchange of critical public remarks that followed the incident stemmed from differing interpretations of agreements on confidentiality arrangements. South Korea then decided to recall its ambassador from Ukraine, and two weeks later the government announced its decision to withdraw some diplomatic staff from Ukraine.
In January 2025, it became known that two North Korean soldiers had been captured by Ukrainian forces in January 2025 in Russia's Kursk region.