ID :
211208
Wed, 10/05/2011 - 06:18
Auther :
Shortlink :
https://oananews.org//node/211208
The shortlink copeid
S. Korea pushing to set up task force on kidnap victims
SEOUL (Yonhap) - South Korea is pushing to create a task force on citizens who were abducted by North Korea following the 1950-53 Korean War, an official said Wednesday.
The move is Seoul's latest effort to bring home its citizens being held in the communist country.
South Korea estimates about 517 civilians are still alive in the North after being kidnapped by the North following the war, which ended in an armistice, not a peace treaty.
South Korea has called for the repatriation of its nationals, but Pyongyang denies any kidnappings, claiming any South Koreans in the North are there voluntarily.
The Unification Ministry seeks to create a pan-government task force that would include officials from the foreign ministry, police, intelligence agency and other related ministries, the official said.
The ministry, which handles inter-Korean affairs, plans to also set up its own task force in case the proposed pan-government task force does not eventuate.
Separately, South Korea believes about 500 South Korean soldiers taken prisoner during the war are still alive in the North.
North Korea has a track record of kidnapping foreign nationals.
In 2002, North Korean leader Kim Jong-il admitted to then-Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi in Pyongyang that the North had abducted 13 Japanese citizens in the 1970s and 1980s to train its spies on Japanese language and culture.
The North at the time returned five of the abductees and claimed the eight others were dead.
In May, the U.S. Committee for Human Rights in North Korea, a human rights group, claimed that North Korea has kidnapped more than 180,000 foreigners over the past several decades.
The move is Seoul's latest effort to bring home its citizens being held in the communist country.
South Korea estimates about 517 civilians are still alive in the North after being kidnapped by the North following the war, which ended in an armistice, not a peace treaty.
South Korea has called for the repatriation of its nationals, but Pyongyang denies any kidnappings, claiming any South Koreans in the North are there voluntarily.
The Unification Ministry seeks to create a pan-government task force that would include officials from the foreign ministry, police, intelligence agency and other related ministries, the official said.
The ministry, which handles inter-Korean affairs, plans to also set up its own task force in case the proposed pan-government task force does not eventuate.
Separately, South Korea believes about 500 South Korean soldiers taken prisoner during the war are still alive in the North.
North Korea has a track record of kidnapping foreign nationals.
In 2002, North Korean leader Kim Jong-il admitted to then-Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi in Pyongyang that the North had abducted 13 Japanese citizens in the 1970s and 1980s to train its spies on Japanese language and culture.
The North at the time returned five of the abductees and claimed the eight others were dead.
In May, the U.S. Committee for Human Rights in North Korea, a human rights group, claimed that North Korea has kidnapped more than 180,000 foreigners over the past several decades.
