ID :
63828
Tue, 06/02/2009 - 16:40
Auther :
Shortlink :
https://oananews.org//node/63828
The shortlink copeid
Detained S. Korean worker transferred to Pyongyang: official
SEOUL, June 2 (Yonhap) -- North Korea appears to have moved a South Korean worker
who was detained at an industrial park just north of the border in March for
criticizing the communist country to the nation's capital, a senior Seoul
official said Tuesday.
The detainee's reported transfer to Pyongyang added to growing concerns over the
safety and fate of the engineer of Hyundai Asan Corp., the developer of the joint
park, who was not allowed access to South Korean officials during his detention
in Kaesong.
North Korea has given no word about how its investigation of the detained worker,
identified by his family name Yu, will proceed. On Thursday, the North will hold
a trial for two U.S. female journalists who were arrested along the border with
China in March and moved to Pyongyang in April to be tried for illegal entry and
hostile acts.
The Hyundai worker appears to have been moved from Kaesong, a few kilometers from
the inter-Korean border and home to a South Korean-developed industrial park
where he was detained, the senior government official said, following a local
media report on Tuesday that said Yu had been transferred to Pyongyang.
"The question is where he was sent, and he was more likely sent to Pyongyang,"
the official said, requesting anonymity due to the sensitivity of the issue.
North Korea sent a message to the South on March 30 saying it detained Yu on that
day on charges that he "malignantly slandered the dignified system of our
republic and tried to incite defection" by a female North Korean employee at the
joint park.
North Korea repeated similar accusations on May 1 after its negotiations with
South Korea to set up government-level talks broke down due to agenda
differences. Pyongyang refused to discuss the matter of Yu.
More than 40,000 North Korean workers, mostly women in their 20s and 30s, are
employed at the joint park that hosts over 100 South Korean firms producing
clothes, kitchenware, electronic equipment and other labor-intensive goods.
Seoul's Unification Ministry, in charge of inter-Korean exchanges, said it could
not confirm whether Yu was moved to Pyongyang. Spokesman Chun Hae-sung said his
ministry has so far "indirectly learned Yu has no health problems and had been
staying in the vicinity of Kaesong" until recently.
hkim@yna.co.kr
(END)
who was detained at an industrial park just north of the border in March for
criticizing the communist country to the nation's capital, a senior Seoul
official said Tuesday.
The detainee's reported transfer to Pyongyang added to growing concerns over the
safety and fate of the engineer of Hyundai Asan Corp., the developer of the joint
park, who was not allowed access to South Korean officials during his detention
in Kaesong.
North Korea has given no word about how its investigation of the detained worker,
identified by his family name Yu, will proceed. On Thursday, the North will hold
a trial for two U.S. female journalists who were arrested along the border with
China in March and moved to Pyongyang in April to be tried for illegal entry and
hostile acts.
The Hyundai worker appears to have been moved from Kaesong, a few kilometers from
the inter-Korean border and home to a South Korean-developed industrial park
where he was detained, the senior government official said, following a local
media report on Tuesday that said Yu had been transferred to Pyongyang.
"The question is where he was sent, and he was more likely sent to Pyongyang,"
the official said, requesting anonymity due to the sensitivity of the issue.
North Korea sent a message to the South on March 30 saying it detained Yu on that
day on charges that he "malignantly slandered the dignified system of our
republic and tried to incite defection" by a female North Korean employee at the
joint park.
North Korea repeated similar accusations on May 1 after its negotiations with
South Korea to set up government-level talks broke down due to agenda
differences. Pyongyang refused to discuss the matter of Yu.
More than 40,000 North Korean workers, mostly women in their 20s and 30s, are
employed at the joint park that hosts over 100 South Korean firms producing
clothes, kitchenware, electronic equipment and other labor-intensive goods.
Seoul's Unification Ministry, in charge of inter-Korean exchanges, said it could
not confirm whether Yu was moved to Pyongyang. Spokesman Chun Hae-sung said his
ministry has so far "indirectly learned Yu has no health problems and had been
staying in the vicinity of Kaesong" until recently.
hkim@yna.co.kr
(END)
