News-Info-Alerts

To: ALL

From: Andi Wolos & Bob Necci

(POW-MIA InterNetwork)

Re: South & North Korean POWs

Date: August 29, 2000

South Korea Seen Demanding North Korea Return POWs
SEOUL, South Korea (Reuters) - South Korea is expected to press North Korea to return Korean War prisoners and others allegedly abducted by the North over a half-century of Cold War hostility at ministerial-level talks starting Tuesday.

The two Koreas, whose ties have warmed considerably following June's historic summit in Pyongyang, may discuss steps to reduce tension on the world's most militarized border at the Aug. 29-31 talks in the North Korean capital, media reports said Monday.

Five officials from Seoul, headed by South Korean Unification Minister Park Jae-kyu, will meet their North Korean counterparts, said Unification Ministry spokesman Kim Hyun-doo

``They are likely to discuss the reconnection of the inter-Korean railroad and the transfer of South Korean POWs in the meeting,'' he said.

Park said earlier this month he planned to raise the issue of returning South Korean war prisoners and abductees held in the North at the talks.

``But we're not sure how discussions over the issue will go,'' said ministry spokesman Kim.

The South Korean government has been criticized by the main opposition Grand National Party for not demanding the return of the South Koreans in exchange for repatriating long-term North Korean prisoners held in the South.

Seoul will return 63 North Korean spies, freed over the last several years, to Pyongyang on September 2.

Kim declined to confirm media reports that military issues will be among main agenda items for the talks.

The Joongang Ilbo newspaper, quoting a high-ranking government official, reported Monday South Korea will propose a meeting between South Korean Defense Minister Cho Sung-tae and his North Korean counterpart Cho Myung-rok at the talks.

The newspaper said Seoul will propose regular meetings between the two ministers, the establishment of a military hotline and a joint panel on military affairs.

It said a meeting between the defense ministers could take place in September, if the North accepts the proposal.

``I can't confirm it and we have no official response to the reports,'' Kim said.

The two sides may also talk about holding more reunions of families separated before and during the traumatic events of the 1950-53 Korean War, Kim said.


Reuters PhotoEarlier this month, 100 elderly North Koreans and an equal number of South Koreans met in Seoul and Pyongyang with family members they had not seen for a half-century.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-il mentioned to visiting South Korean media executives recently that more reunions could be held in September and October.

Park may talk about another round of reunions and setting up a permanent meeting point for divided families at this week's talks, Kim said.

``But the issue is more likely to be discussed at the next Red Cross meeting,'' he said. South Korea Sunday proposed to hold a meeting of the rival Korean Red Cross organizations at the U.N. truce village of Panmunjom on Sept. 5. North Korea has yet to respond.

The reunions arranged by the two Red Crosses have been the highlight in a series of conciliatory gestures marking the rapprochement of the old foes.

But skeptics in Korea and abroad note little progress has been made on reducing the military threat on the peninsula, where a million soldiers face off in one of the last legacies of the Cold War.

At the first round of ministerial-level talks in Seoul in late July, the two sides agreed to reopen liaison offices at Panmunjom, the one point of contact along the 2.5-mile-wide Demilitarized Zone that divides North and South Korea.

First used in 1992, but abandoned by the North in 1996, the liaison offices will provide an alternative to meeting under the auspices of the United Nations.

The two Koreas have also agreed to open road and railway links, with work expected to begin next month.

The railway would link the Korean peninsula to China and Siberia and ultimately to Europe, prompting South Korea's President Kim Dae-jung to dub it ``the iron silk road.''

The two Koreas are still technically at war because the 1950-53 Korean war ended in an armed truce, not a formal peace treaty.