South Korea's National Human Rights Commission has voted to formally urge the country's foreign minister and prime minister to secure the swift transfer to South Korea of two North Korean soldiers currently held as prisoners of war in Ukraine. The two soldiers, captured in Ukraine since early 2025, told a South Korean broadcaster in January that they wished to defect, with one reportedly saying he would take his own life rather than be repatriated to North Korea and face punishment there. The commission stopped short of issuing a binding recommendation, instead choosing to "state its opinion" — a softer but still significant intervention in a diplomatically sensitive case.