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omonatheydidNorth Korea on Thursday demanded the return of nine apparent defectors who crossed into South Korean territorial waters in a rowing boat, Seoul officials said.
"North Korea's Red Cross sent a message to the South Korean Red Cross and demanded that the South return the nine people at an early date," the unification ministry, which handles cross-border affairs, said in a statement.
The South says the nine are free to choose whether to stay or to return home.
The three men, two women and four children -- family members of two brothers -- rowed across the tense Yellow Sea border last Saturday.
Media reports say they expressed a desire to defect from their impoverished homeland, which is beset by persistent severe food shortages.
"What's most important is their own free will, whether they want to return home or stay here," foreign ministry spokesman Cho Byung-Jae said earlier Thursday.
"Our principle in dealing with this matter... is respecting their free will either way."
In February a boatload of North Koreans drifted across the Yellow Sea border in thick fog, apparently accidentally.
Seoul returned 27 of the 31 people on board but refused to hand over the other four, saying they had freely chosen to stay in the South.
Pyongyang complained bitterly that the four had been pressured to stay and publicised appeals from their relatives for them to come home.
The latest incident comes at a time of high cross-border tensions but an analyst said he did not believe it would seriously aggravate the situation.
"The North cannot help but demand their return, as usual, but it will have to swallow (the situation) as the nine came to the South of their free will," said Kim Yong-Hyun, a North Korea expert at Seoul's Dongguk University.
"I don't think this will affect inter-Korean relations seriously."
Chosun Ilbo newspaper said a 50-year-old man, his 42-year-old brother and their family members were aboard the small wooden rowing boat.
"All of them have expressed their intention to defect to the South," it quoted a Seoul government source as saying.
The paper said the group left Haeju in Hwanghae province on Friday night. It said they had planned their escape for some time to escape the harsh economic climate in the North.
Some 21,000 people from the isolated communist state have come to the capitalist South since the end of the 1950-1953 war, the vast majority in recent years.
The latest group is being questioned by police, military and intelligence officials about their route and motives, a normal procedure intended to weed out North Korean agents.
If it is confirmed they want to stay, they will spend a mandatory three months in an assimilation and training centre and will be given financial and housing support upon leaving.
Source: afp
"North Korea's Red Cross sent a message to the South Korean Red Cross and demanded that the South return the nine people at an early date," the unification ministry, which handles cross-border affairs, said in a statement.
The South says the nine are free to choose whether to stay or to return home.
The three men, two women and four children -- family members of two brothers -- rowed across the tense Yellow Sea border last Saturday.
Media reports say they expressed a desire to defect from their impoverished homeland, which is beset by persistent severe food shortages.
"What's most important is their own free will, whether they want to return home or stay here," foreign ministry spokesman Cho Byung-Jae said earlier Thursday.
"Our principle in dealing with this matter... is respecting their free will either way."
In February a boatload of North Koreans drifted across the Yellow Sea border in thick fog, apparently accidentally.
Seoul returned 27 of the 31 people on board but refused to hand over the other four, saying they had freely chosen to stay in the South.
Pyongyang complained bitterly that the four had been pressured to stay and publicised appeals from their relatives for them to come home.
The latest incident comes at a time of high cross-border tensions but an analyst said he did not believe it would seriously aggravate the situation.
"The North cannot help but demand their return, as usual, but it will have to swallow (the situation) as the nine came to the South of their free will," said Kim Yong-Hyun, a North Korea expert at Seoul's Dongguk University.
"I don't think this will affect inter-Korean relations seriously."
Chosun Ilbo newspaper said a 50-year-old man, his 42-year-old brother and their family members were aboard the small wooden rowing boat.
"All of them have expressed their intention to defect to the South," it quoted a Seoul government source as saying.
The paper said the group left Haeju in Hwanghae province on Friday night. It said they had planned their escape for some time to escape the harsh economic climate in the North.
Some 21,000 people from the isolated communist state have come to the capitalist South since the end of the 1950-1953 war, the vast majority in recent years.
The latest group is being questioned by police, military and intelligence officials about their route and motives, a normal procedure intended to weed out North Korean agents.
If it is confirmed they want to stay, they will spend a mandatory three months in an assimilation and training centre and will be given financial and housing support upon leaving.
Source: afp
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Date: 2011-06-16 04:51 pm (UTC)no subject
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Date: 2011-06-16 09:50 pm (UTC)