[USFK Forums] S. Korean reporters leave N. Korea in protest of threats [Yonhap]

[C. Y. Lee]

Uploaded by C. Y. Lee on Thursday, March 23, 2006

(LEAD) S. Korean reporters leave N. Korea in protest of threats

2006/03/23 14:26

By Byun Duk-kun

SEOUL, March 23 (Yonhap) -- The South Korean joint press corps at an ongoing round of inter-Korean separated family reunions at North Korea's Mount Geumgang has decided to cut short their original schedule Thursday after the North threatened to take punitive measures against one of its members.

The decision came after North Korean officials protested earlier reports by reporters from South Korean broadcasters SBS and MBC describing a South Korean held in the communist state as an abductee, and said Wednesday that they would deal with the reporters in accordance with their domestic law if they were not immediately removed from the country.

The North Korean officials did not elaborate on what the measures would be, but government officials here said it may have included physical restraint or expulsion.

"There was almost no possibility that North Korean officials would have physically restrained or detained the reporter, but the government still had to consider the possibility," an official said on condition of anonymity.

Wednesday's standoff between North Korean officials and South Korean reporters delayed the scheduled trip home of 99 South Korean family members and their helpers from the 13th round of the Red Cross-sponsored family reunions by 10 hours.

The SBS reporter returned to South Korea early Thursday morning with the South Korean families after his company decided that his safety might have been compromised.

South Korea's top official on North Korean affairs expressed deep regrets, saying it was inhumane for the North to delay the departure of the South Korean family members.

"The government expresses its deepest regrets at the North's obstruction of free press activities and delaying of the South Korean families' departure at the 13th round of the North-South separated family reunions at Mount Geumgang," Unification Minister Lee Jong-seok told reporters.

He said the North's protests against the South Korean reports may have not been planned, but said its threats to take punitive measures against the reporters and delay the departure of the South Korean family members did not help inter-Korean relations.

The South Korean family members, most of whom are in their 80s or 90s, were virtually held hostage until their departure at 11:10 p.m. by the communist state, which said it would not let them leave unless the accused reporters also left with them.

The rest of the 24-member media group remaining in the North Korean mountain resort were to return to the country later in the day.

A second group of 436 South Koreans, however, was traveling to the North Korean resort for a three-day meeting with 100 of their long-lost relatives from the North.

The separated family reunions are a product of the historic meeting between then South Korean President Kim Dae-jung and North Korean leader Kim Jong-il in the North's capital Pyongyang in June 2000.

bdk@yna.co.kr

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