N. Korea rejects South's POW reunion plan
By JAE-SOON CHANG
The Associated Press
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) - South Korea on Thursday proposed family reunions for its prisoners of war and civilians it believes were abducted by the North, but Pyongyang rejected the offer during talks between the countries' Red Cross societies.
The issue was a major snag at the Red Cross meeting, the first since November 2003. The talks had been set to end Thursday morning but were continuing amid discussions about the alleged abductions.
"We raised the need for reunions only for those missing during wartime," an unidentified South Korean delegate was quoted as saying in a pool report. "But discussions on this issue are not easy, as the North side took it very sensitively."
South Korea's Defense Ministry estimates that 538 South Korean prisoners from the 1950-53 Korean War were alive in North Korea as of December 2004. The Unification Ministry estimates that 486 South Korean abductees, such as fishermen whose boats were seized, are also being held in North Korea.
The Korean War ended in a truce, not in a peace treaty, and the border between the two countries is sealed with barbed-wire and mine fields, and is guarded by nearly 2 million troops on both sides.
Dozens of South Korean prisoners of war have escaped from the North since 1994, as the communist country relaxed controls over the movements of its hunger-stricken populace. However, efforts by South Korea to bring the remaining soldiers home have made little progress as Pyongyang denies holding any.
©2005 Associated Press