S. Korea to take detained worker issue to ARF: foreign minister

By Lee Chi-dong
SEOUL, July 2 (Yonhap) -- South Korea plans to raise the long-protracted issue of
its national detained in North Korea at the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) to be held
in Thailand later this month, Seoul's top diplomat said Thursday.
"As it is a grave issue related to the universal problem of human rights, I think
I will have to make reference to it," Foreign Minister Yu Myung-hwan said at his
monthly press briefing.
North Korea took into custody a South Korean manager at the inter-Korean
industrial park in Kaesong in late March, accusing him of criticizing the
communist nation's political system and attempting to lure a North Korean woman
to defect to the South.
North Korean officials have rejected South Korea's demand for his release and has
withheld information on his whereabouts.
lcd@yna.co.kr
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