An worker walks cross an indication indicating the Ministry of Unification’s workplace at Authorities Complicated Seoul in Jongno District, July 28, 2023. Yonhap
The unification ministry mentioned Thursday it’s in search of to repatriate aged “unconverted long-term” North Korean prisoners of struggle (POWs) however not contemplating linking the difficulty with efforts to win the discharge of six South Koreans detained within the North.
Citing Seoul’s nationwide safety adviser, NK Information, a U.S. information outlet centered on North Korea, reported that South Korea is keen to debate the repatriation of unconverted, long-term North Korean POWs in an effort to carry residence South Korean nationals detained within the North.
The report got here after throughout a press convention with international media Wednesday, President Lee Jae Myung mentioned he had by no means heard of South Korean detainees in North Korea and lacks data on particular person circumstances, when requested concerning the authorities’s plan to safe their launch.
The unification ministry dismissed the report Thursday, saying that the federal government isn’t presently contemplating measures to swap such North Korean POWs with South Koreans detained within the North.
“From the humanitarian grounds, the federal government will search to repatriate unconverted long-term North Korean POWs. However it’s not presently contemplating linking the difficulty to efforts to win the discharge of our nationals detained within the North,” a ministry official instructed reporters on situation of anonymity.
Ahn Hak-sop, a 95-year-old who as soon as served as a North Korean soldier, has known as on the federal government to repatriate him to North Korea by way of China or Russia.
He’s one in every of six aged former North Korean troopers and spies who’ve but to surrender their communist beliefs linked to North Korea, regardless of having spent many years in jail within the South.
Presently, three South Korean missionaries — Kim Jung-wook, Kim Kook-kie and Choi Chun-gil — have been detained in North Korea for greater than a decade on anti-state prices. Three former North Korean defectors, who had obtained South Korean citizenship, have been held captive in 2016.
North Korea has not confirmed their whereabouts or fates.
The unification ministry mentioned it acknowledges the “pressing” have to resolve the detainee difficulty and is making efforts to handle it by dialogue with North Korea.
“The federal government will make multifaceted efforts to safe the discharge of South Korean nationals detained within the North,” it mentioned.
