North Korea has proposed an inter-Korean border meeting this week over the proposed repatriation of its citizens rescued from a drifting fishing boat, officials in the South said Monday.
A South Korean coastguard vessel picked up five North Koreans on July 4 after their boat was found drifting across the sea border off the eastern coast.
Three of them expressed a desire to live in the South while the two others wanted to return home.
The North has rejected the South’s offer to return the two who called for repatriation through the border truce village of Panmunjom, insisting all five should be sent home and warning otherwise of unspecified “stern countermeasures” last week.
On Monday, the North suggested an unspecified number of officials and family members would visit Panmunjom Tuesday to get all five handed over, the South’s unification ministry said.
The ministry said South Korean officials would go to Panmunjom for the repatriation of only two North Koreans.
“A meeting is expected to be held in Panmunjom tomorrow, but it’s not clear whether the North will accept the repatriation of the two,” a ministry official told AFP.
Seoul has also rejected Pyongyang’s request to reveal the identities of the three defectors.
South Korea’s policy is to allow stray North Korean fishermen to decide whether or not to return to the North.
Seoul repatriated two North Korean fishermen rescued off the east coast in February and five others last month after investigators confirmed their wish to return home.
The North usually sends home South Korean fishermen rescued in its waters, although some have been held there, apparently against their will.
Most North Koreans who flee repression and poverty at home cross the porous frontier with China first before travelling through a Southeast Asian nation and eventually arriving in South Korea.
So far about 28,000 North Koreans have resettled in the South since the end of the 1950-53 Korean War.
Panmunjom is the only point for dialogue and contact inside the demilitarised zone separating the Korean peninsula. But meetings there have been rare this year due to high cross-border tensions which have flared at regular intervals.
2015 Sun Media Corporation Sdn. Bhd.