(News Focus) Clinton's trip spurs hopes for South Koreans' release

By Kim Hyun
SEOUL, Aug. 7 (Yonhap) -- The release of two American journalists from North
Korea this week gave a new urgency to South Korea's efforts to bring home its
citizens held in the North, with analysts eyeing next week's important
anniversary as an opportune time.

Former U.S. President Bill Clinton during some three hours of talks with North
Korean leader Kim Jong-il pressed him to free a South Korean worker and four
fishermen held in his country.
On the same day that Clinton flew into Pyongyang, the chief of South Korea's
Hyundai Group, whose employee has been held by the North since late March, was
unexpectedly able to talk with a high-level Pyongyang official.
Given the highly sensitive nature of dealings with North Korea, Seoul dismissed
growing speculation that secret contacts might be underway.
"The government is doing all it can" to bring the South Koreans home, President
Lee Myung-bak said, urging people to "trust the government and let it do its
work."
The 44-year-old Hyundai worker, whom the company would only identify by his last
name Yu, has been held on accusations of "slandering" the North's political
system and trying to persuade a local woman to defect to the South. In contrast
to the American journalists who were allowed phone calls to their family and
diplomatic contact, North Korea has held Yu incommunicado and refused to discuss
the issue with Seoul.
Seoul officials said they can only assume he is being held near his workplace,
the joint industrial park in the North's border town of Kaesong.
New worries were added last week when a fishing boat with four fishermen aboard
was seized after straying into North Korean waters in the East Sea. The North
said it was investigating the crewmen of Yeonanho 800 for "illegally intruding
deep into" its territorial waters.
Coming up is the Aug. 15 Independence Day, celebrated on both sides of the border
as the day the peninsula was liberated from 36 years of Japanese colonization in
1945. The anniversary has at times served as an occasion for a South Korean
president to make a bold proposal to Pyongyang and patch up relations.
Inter-Korean relations rapidly chilled after President Lee Myung-bak took office
in Seoul last year, taking a tough stance on the North's nuclear program and
linking economic aid to its progress in denuclearization. Pyongyang cut off
dialogue in retaliation.
Both Koreas regard the day as important, according to Lee Bong-jo, a former vice
unification minister.
"The Koreas were divided right after their liberation from Japan, so the
liberation was not a real liberation. From the historic perspective that the
country would not have been divided had it not been colonized, there is a shared
sense that they should restore the meaning of the Independence Day to make the
liberation complete," Lee said.
In the wake of Clinton's appeal, speculation is growing that North Korea may free
the detained worker ahead of the anniversary, giving South Korea the
justification for a goodwill gesture to Pyongyang, such as resuming humanitarian
aid.
"I believe there will be remarks from Lee toward North Korea that will turn
around the inter-Korean relations" on the Aug. 15 anniversary, a North Korea
expert at a state-run think tank said, requesting anonymity.
Seoul's recent approval of humanitarian operations suggests that there had been
consultations with Washington about Clinton's Pyongyang visit and the
reconciliatory repercussions it would bring to the region, he said.
In what appeared to be the most promising signal this week, North Korea sent Ri
Jong-hyuk, vice chairman of the Korean Asia-Pacific Peace Committee in charge of
inter-Korean relations, to the Mount Kumgang resort on its east coast, where
Hyundai Group was holding a memorial for one of its late chiefs. Ri paid respects
to the late Hyundai chairman, Chung Mong-hun, who ran the Mount Kumgang tour
project before his suicide in 2003, and had lunch with Chung's wife and the
current group chairwoman, Hyun Jung-eun.
Ri's visit grabbed attention because Hyundai's past attempts to access senior
North Korean officials to press for Yu's release had been futile.
Hyun evaded questions about the talks with the North Korean official.
"I met with vice chairman Ri, but we did not discuss business matters," she said
after returning from the North Korean resort.
In another positive sign, Hyundai Asan said its chief, Cho Kun-shik, is scheduled
to visit North Korea from Tuesday to Thursday next week.
Just days before Clinton's Pyongyang trip, South Korea resumed humanitarian aid
to North Korea through non-governmental organizations, which was stalled after
Pyongyang's rocket launch in April. Aid workers were also allowed to visit North
Korea recently.
hkim@yna.co.kr
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