The South Korean government’s human rights watchdog says the country’s foreign and prime ministers should use all available resources to protect and repatriate two North Korean prisoners of war held in Ukraine. 

The state-funded National Human Rights Commission of Korea unanimously approved an opinion calling for Seoul to protect the North Korean POWs and support their entry into South Korea, preventing them from being forcibly repatriated against their will, a spokesperson told NK News on Tuesday.

Commission members deliberated on the decision for over a month and raised questions about whether the POWs truly wished to defect to South Korea,