[USFK Forums] S. Korea regrets North's obstruction of press activities [Kyodo]

[C. Y. Lee]

Uploaded by C. Y. Lee on Friday, March 24, 2006

S. Korea regrets North's obstruction of press activities

Thursday March 23, 3:56 PM

(Kyodo) _ South Korea on Thursday voiced "deepest regrets" at North Korea's obstruction of press activities by South Korean reporters covering a reunion of separated family members at a mountain resort in the North.
"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 Mt. Kumgang," Unification Minister Lee Jong Seok told reporters, in a report by Yonhap News Agency.

Lee's remarks were in response to the North's delaying the return of South Koreans, mostly in their 80s and 90s, on Wednesday after protesting an earlier South Korean media report on the family reunions.

The buses carrying the group of 99 South Koreans was prevented from leaving Mt. Kumgang at 1 p.m. Wednesday as scheduled after North Korean officials demanded that a South Korean reporter leave the country with the group.

The South Korean families were eventually allowed to leave the country by bus several hours behind schedule.

North Korean officials accused the reporter of using the term "abductee" when reporting the reunion between a South Korean woman and her 76-year-old husband who was described as being a former South Korean abducted by the North.

North Korea strongly denied there are any South Korean abductees in the North, while South Korea said about 480 South Korean people, mostly fishermen, are believed to have been taken to the North.

Meanwhile, a South Korean press corps covering the inter-Korean family reunions has decided to cut short its original schedule Thursday after the North threatened to take punitive actions against one of its member reporters.

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