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Pyongyang has repeated its demands Thursday that Seoul return every one of 31 North Koreans it arrested when their boat crossed into South Korean waters last month, rejecting assertions that four of them do not want to return. South Korea said Thursday that the four would be allowed to stay in the South while the 27 others would be repatriated Friday through a border village. The 20 men and 11 women were in a fishing boat that crossed the tense Yellow Sea border in thick fog on February 5. The North, in a statement late Thursday on its official news agency, accused the South of "despicable unethical acts" and said the 31 had been held hostage to fuel cross-border confrontations. It said their boat had drifted due to heavy fog and demanded all those on board be repatriated. Pyongyang added that Seoul had pressured them to remain in the South "by appeasement, deception and threat," it said. "This cannot be interpreted otherwise than a grave provocation to the DPRK (North Korea)," said a statement attributed to a spokesman for the North's Red Cross. The incident comes amid high cross-border tensions as US and South Korean troops stage major military exercises. The North sees the drills as rehearsals for invasion and has threatened to turn Seoul into a "sea of flames," should it feel provoked. The South normally returns North Koreans who drift across the border by accident and who express a wish to go home. Reasons for keeping this group in custody so long are unclear. Unidentified analysts quoted by the Korea JoongAng Daily said Seoul kept the North Koreans for about a month to show Pyongyang what was done to South Koreans who found themselves in North Korean territory in the past. The crews of two boats which drifted into Northern waters in 2009 and 2010 were returned 30 days after their capture. AFP |
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