North, South Korean Red Cross organizations resuming talks on POWs, abductees
Red Cross officials from the two Koreas are trying to narrow their differences Wednesday after the North refused to discuss the alleged kidnapping of South Koreans.
The talks - the first since November 2003 - started at the North's Diamond Mountain resort. They focused on hundreds of prisoners of war and abductees believed alive in the North.
South Korea estimates that 538 of its soldiers from the 1950-53 Korean War were alive in the North as of December 2004.
Seoul also says the North is holding 486 South Korean abductees, including fishermen whose boats were seized since the war ended.
Dozens of South Korean POWs have escaped from the North since 1994, as the communist country relaxed controls over the movements of its hunger-stricken population.
However, the North has denied holding any South Korean POWs and has maintained that the alleged abductees voluntarily defected.
Though the North appears more willing to discuss the POW issue amid an overall warming of ties with the South, both have couched the subject in vague terms, describing their talks as "efforts to account for those missing during wartime", the AP reports.
©1999 by "Pravda.RU"
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Koreas progress little in POW talks
August 25, 2005 - Red Cross representatives from the two Koreas yesterday began a two-day meeting at Mount Kumgang, where they are known to be discussing the issue of determining the fate of South Korean prisoners of war from the Korean War. Both sides have reportedly tried to find a middle ground, said sources close to the meeting. However, so far, no progress has been made.
According to sources, the South Korean representatives want the Northern representatives to identify South Korean prisoners of war and abductees, not only from the Korean War but also from the post-war period. North Korean officials, however, have said the time period should be limited to the Korean War.
This would mean that only the whereabouts of South Korean prisoners of war would be made known.
Separate from the prisoners of war, Seoul believes there are more than 480 South Korean abductees still held captive in the North.
Although there was an exchange of prisoners between the two Koreas following the armistice agreement in 1953, a significant number of South Korean soldiers were not returned to the South.
The issue of non-repatriated South Korean soldiers received public attention in 1994, when Second Lieutenant Cho Chang-ho returned to South Korea.
Based on intelligence gathered from North Korean defectors and other sources, the South Korean Defense Ministry estimates that 538 South Korean soldiers were still alive in the North as of December 2004. To this date, 47 South Korean soldiers have returned home.
Fearing irritating Pyongyang and hindering inter-Korean relations, the South Korean government has remained more or less silent about the issue, while the North Korean government's official stance on the issue is that all South Koreans in the North are there "voluntarily."
by Brian Lee
©Joongang Daily