A captured North Korean soldier is seen in this photo posted on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's X account, Jan. 12. Yonhap

The South Korean government said Wednesday it will accept all North Korean prisoners of war (POWs) in Ukraine who wish to defect, reaffirming its commitment to providing them with necessary protection.

The announcement came hours after local media reported that a North Korean soldier held in Ukraine expressed his intent to seek asylum in the South.

"Under the Constitution, North Korean soldiers are recognized as our nationals. Respecting an individual's free will in matters of prisoner repatriation aligns with international law and related practices. No individual should be forcibly returned to a place where they face risk of persecution," an official at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said.

The government has delivered this position to the Ukrainian authorities and will continue discussions with them, the official added.

According to an interview by Chosun Ilbo published earlier in the day, a North Korean soldier identified only by his surname Ri, currently held by Ukrainian forces in Kyiv, stated his intent to defect to South Korea.

Ri, 26, and another soldier, 21-year-old Baek, were captured on Jan. 9 in Russia's Kursk region. They were among thousands of North Korean troops sent to battlefields since October 2024 to support Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

"First, I plan to apply for asylum, and I'm thinking of going to South Korea ... If I seek refuge, would they accept me?" Ri said when asked about his future plans, adding that he was 80 percent certain about his decision.

Ri claimed he joined the North Korean military in 2015, serving as a reconnaissance soldier and sniper. He also said he was deployed to the war in Ukraine on Jan. 5 but was unaware of his combat role before arriving in Kursk.

"I was told I would be training as a student. I didn't know I would be participating in combat," he was quoted as saying.

When asked whether North Korean soldiers were instructed to kill themselves if captured, he responded that "being taken prisoner is considered betrayal" in his military.

This marks the first instance of a North Korean prisoner of war (POW) publicly seeking asylum in Seoul, although there have been previous cases of soldiers defecting from North Korean territory.

South Korea's intelligence agency estimates that 11,000 North Korean soldiers have been deployed, around 4,000 of whom have been killed or injured.

Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Lee Jae-woong speaks during a press briefing at the ministry's headquarters in Seoul, Feb. 13. Yonhap

In an interview with The Korea Times earlier this month, Ukrainian Ambassador to South Korea Dmytro Ponomarenko said the Ukrainian government is open to discussions with Seoul.

"Given the threat to the life and freedom of North Korean servicemen in the event of their repatriation to the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), and if they refuse to return, we are open to dialogue with international partners, particularly the Republic of Korea, regarding the possibilities of their transfer to third countries," Ponomarenko said.

However, under current circumstances, bringing the North Korean captive to South Korea appears to be a complicated process.

The Geneva Conventions on POWs stipulate that "prisoners of war captured during hostilities must be released and repatriated to their home country without delay once the war ends."

Questions linger whether the North Korean captives can be treated as POWs under international law, as neither Russia nor North Korea have officially acknowledged the deployment of North Korean troops.

Meanwhile, U.S. President Donald Trump, who has been pushing for peace talks to end the Russia-Ukraine war, publicly acknowledged the presence of North Korean soldiers in the war for the first time.

"Soldiers are being killed by the thousands on a weekly basis. And they're not American soldiers; they are Russian soldiers and Ukrainian soldiers largely, although a lot of Koreans have been killed, as you know," he said during a press conference, Tuesday (local time).