[USFK Forums] Analysis: Two Koreas begin Red Cross Talks [UPI]

[C. Y. Lee]

Uploaded by C. Y. Lee on Wednesday, February 22, 2006

Analysis: Koreas begin Red Cross talks

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By Jong-Heon Lee

UPI Correspondent

Published February 21, 2006

Red Cross officials from North and South Korea met Tuesday to discuss the fate of South Korean prisoners of war and other pressing humanitarian issues.

The talks, scheduled to end Thursday, will serve as an opportunity to test Pyongyang's response to Seoul's newly appointed envoy.

The Red Cross meeting is the first formal dialogue between the two Koreas since reconciliation promoter Lee Jong-seok was named as South Korea's unification minister in charge of handling North Korean affairs earlier this month.

Seoul officials are hopeful the North will have a positive response as Lee was the main architect of the South's reconciliation policy toward North Korea despite the nuclear standoff.

Hope was boosted Tuesday as the North agreed to resume long-stalled military talks next week to discuss measures to reduce tensions across the heavily fortified border.

South Korea's former President Kim Dae-jung, who ventured into North Korea in June 2000 for the first inter-Korean summit with Kim Jong Il, is also scheduled to visit the communist country again in June to help break the deadlock.

A three-member delegation from the South's National Red Cross Tuesday left for the North's mountain resort of Kumgang, where they will call for the North to repatriate South Korean prisoners of war and other citizens detained in the North.

"We will push for the repatriation of POWs and other South Koreans abducted into the North," a government official said.

Seoul's Defense Ministry says some 19,000 South Korean soldiers were listed as missing in action during the war. The ministry estimates there are a total of 1,186 South Korean POWs in the North, and that 542 of them are still stranded there.

The South's Red Cross estimates there are 485 South Korean civilians who have been abducted by the North.

North Korea last year confirmed 10 South Korean POWs and 11 kidnapped South Koreans were still alive in the country, but has denied holding anyone against their will.

South Korea has already promised to donate 150,000 tons of fertilizer to North Korea for the sowing season. In addition, the South is considering providing 300,000 additional tons of fertilizer this year to help the North increase grain output.

On the back of the South's economic cooperation package, trade between South and North Korea notched a 30 percent increase last month from a year earlier. According to the Korea International Trade Association, trade volume between the two Koreas amounted to $63.11 million in January, up 27.5 percent.

Apparently corresponding to Seoul's economic aid, North Korea agreed Tuesday to resume general-level military talks next week after a nearly two-year hiatus to discuss tension reduction measures across the border.

"North Korea notified us of the date for the meeting last night and we've sent an agreement telegram this morning," the Defense Ministry said in a press release.

During the general-level talks on March 2-3, the two sides will discuss the issue of reconnecting cross-border railways and ways to prevent accidental clashes along the maritime border.

The poorly marked inter-Korean sea border has long been a constant source of armed conflicts between the two Koreas, particularly during the crab catching seasons.

Navy boats from the two nations clashed in 1999 and 2002 in the region, causing casualties. Any other such skirmish could complicate international negotiations aimed at dismantling North Korea's nuclear weapons programs which have heightened tensions on the peninsula for the past three years.

The divided Korean peninsula is still technically in a state of war, as their 1950-53 armed conflict ended without a peace treaty.

Lee Jong-seok, newly appointed unification minister, has pledged to press ahead with reconciliation policy toward the North, brushing aside opposition accusations of appeasement and concerns about its nuclear drive.

Jong-seok defended his policy last week, saying that North Korea was slowly changing thanks to Seoul's policy of engagement. "North Korea, although hesitatingly, is slowly moving toward a market economy," Lee told a group of diplomats.



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