North Korea urges South Korea to send back its fishermen
음성듣기
North Korea again urged South Korea Thursday to repatriate two fishermen who expressed their wish to remain here after being rescued from a boat drifting off the South's east coast, claiming that Seoul has detained them without justification.
Last week, three men in their 20s and 30s were rescued by the South Korean Coast Guard near Ulleung Island on the East Sea after their ship ran adrift due to engine problems.
In accordance with their wishes, two of them were allowed to stay in the South on humanitarian grounds, while the remaining one was handed over to his communist homeland earlier this week.
In a statement on Thursday, an unidentified spokesman for the North's Central Committee of the Red Cross Society denounced the South for "unethical action," claiming that the South ignored the North's call to meet the two here face-to-face to confirm "if their intention is true."
"The South Korean authorities still keep them in custody, barring them from meeting with a representative of the DPRK side though several days have passed since then," it said. DPRK is the acronym of the North's official name, Democratic People's Republic of Korea.
Calling the South's move "an unpardonable grave encroachment" upon the human rights of its citizens, Pyongyang urged their unconditional and immediate repatriation.
"If they refuse to do so, we will strongly react against them, as we have already warned, and then they will be held wholly responsible for the ensuing grave consequences," it said, without elaborating further. (Yonhap)
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