President Lee Jae Myung’s increasingly confrontational response to Ukraine over the public disclosure of North Korean prisoners of war (POWs) risks turning a manageable diplomatic misunderstanding into an unnecessary dispute. His insistence that Kyiv acknowledge a confidential agreement, apologize for violating it and face “additional measures” if it refuses may satisfy a desire to defend national dignity. But diplomacy is not conducted to satisfy wounded pride. It is conducted to protect national interests. Ukraine was under no international legal obligation to repatriate the North Korean POWs to South Korea. Nevertheless, it accepted the wishes of the prisoners who wanted to come to the South and facilitated their transfer. The circumstances surrounding the disclosure certainly merit clarification. If Ukraine did, as Lee claims, explicitly request confidentiality and subsequently breached that understanding, Seoul has every right to seek an explanation and an apology. Yet there is a vast difference between demanding accountability through diplomatic channels and publicly escal