ID :
53061
Tue, 03/31/2009 - 10:07
Auther :
Shortlink :
https://www.oananews.org//node/53061
The shortlink copeid
N. Korea holding S. Korea's Hyundai worker for 2nd day
By Kim Hyun
SEOUL, March 31 (Yonhap) -- North Korea is refusing to allow Seoul officials access to a South Korean worker detained for criticizing the communist regime, his firm and officials said Tuesday, raising tension ahead of Pyongyang's planned rocket launch.
North Korea is also preparing to indict two U.S. journalists being held on
charges of illegal entry and "hostile acts," its state-run news agency said
Tuesday. Analysts said both incidents could be part of an attempt by the North to
gain leverage in future talks.
North Korea has said it will send a communications satellite into orbit some time
between April 4 and 8, which many experts believe may be a cover for testing its
long-range missile technology. South Korea, the U.S. and Japan had earlier warned
they could intercept the rocket and impose tough sanctions should Pyongyang carry
out the launch, but officials have since softened their stances.
U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates said Sunday his government will not shoot
down the rocket unless it threatens U.S. territory, and South Korean President
Lee Myung-bak said in a recent interview that he opposes a military response to
North Korea's rocket launch.
On Monday, North Korea detained an engineer with Hyundai Asan Corp., a unit of
South Korea's Hyundai Group that has developed several economic ventures in the
North, at a joint industrial complex in the North Korean border town of Kaesong.
In a fax message to the Seoul government, the North said the engineer "denounced
the political system of our highly esteemed republic and schemed to degenerate
and spoil our female employee to incite defection."
Officials with Hyundai and the government would not disclose the worker's
identity due to the sensitivity of the issue, except to say that he is an
engineer.
"We are continuing to ask the North to allow contact with him, but there has been
no response yet," said Kim Ha-young, a publicity official with Hyundai Asan.
Seoul will continue to urge North Korea to allow the detainee to consult an
attorney according to inter-Korean accords governing joint economic ventures,
said Unification Ministry spokeswoman Lee Jong-joo. North Korea may fine or expel
South Koreans violating its law, but cannot try them in its territory, she said.
Lee ruled out any connection between the detention of the South Korean worker and
the U.S. journalists, saying "they occurred in separate places for separate
reasons."
There have been several cases of South Korean workers and tourists being detained
in the North, but the latest incident raises special concerns as it comes amid
frosty relations on the peninsula and just days ahead of the announced dates for
North Korea's rocket launch.
Yoo Ho-yeol, a North Korean studies professor at Korea University in Seoul, said
Pyongyang would want to have regional countries on full alert to maximize the
effects of its rocket launch, he said.
"North Korea has seized and is sternly dealing with what would usually have been
brushed off," Yoo said. "By raising tensions, it wants to raise its voice in
negotiations to come."
Early Tuesday, the North said the two U.S. reporters will be indicted for
"illegal entry" and "hostile acts," dampening prospects for their early release.
Euna Lee and Laura Ling, who work for Current TV, a San Francisco-based Internet
news outlet, were taken by North Korean soldiers on March 17 along the North's
border with China while working on a story about North Korean defectors.
In Kaesong, just an hour's drive from Seoul, 101 small garment and other
labor-intensive South Korean firms are currently operating at the South
Korean-funded industrial complex, which employs some 39,000 North Korean workers.
The Kaesong venture is the only major cross-border project that remains intact
between the two divided Koreas. Other visible projects, including tours to Mount
Kumgang and historic sites in Kaesong, an ancient Korean capital, have all been
suspended.
North Korea barred South Korean border crossings to the joint complex several
times earlier this month in protest of an annual U.S.-South Korean joint military
exercise.
The North also expelled hundreds of South Korean workers and curtailed border
traffic in December in retaliation against the Seoul government's toughened
stance on Pyongyang's nuclear arms.
SEOUL, March 31 (Yonhap) -- North Korea is refusing to allow Seoul officials access to a South Korean worker detained for criticizing the communist regime, his firm and officials said Tuesday, raising tension ahead of Pyongyang's planned rocket launch.
North Korea is also preparing to indict two U.S. journalists being held on
charges of illegal entry and "hostile acts," its state-run news agency said
Tuesday. Analysts said both incidents could be part of an attempt by the North to
gain leverage in future talks.
North Korea has said it will send a communications satellite into orbit some time
between April 4 and 8, which many experts believe may be a cover for testing its
long-range missile technology. South Korea, the U.S. and Japan had earlier warned
they could intercept the rocket and impose tough sanctions should Pyongyang carry
out the launch, but officials have since softened their stances.
U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates said Sunday his government will not shoot
down the rocket unless it threatens U.S. territory, and South Korean President
Lee Myung-bak said in a recent interview that he opposes a military response to
North Korea's rocket launch.
On Monday, North Korea detained an engineer with Hyundai Asan Corp., a unit of
South Korea's Hyundai Group that has developed several economic ventures in the
North, at a joint industrial complex in the North Korean border town of Kaesong.
In a fax message to the Seoul government, the North said the engineer "denounced
the political system of our highly esteemed republic and schemed to degenerate
and spoil our female employee to incite defection."
Officials with Hyundai and the government would not disclose the worker's
identity due to the sensitivity of the issue, except to say that he is an
engineer.
"We are continuing to ask the North to allow contact with him, but there has been
no response yet," said Kim Ha-young, a publicity official with Hyundai Asan.
Seoul will continue to urge North Korea to allow the detainee to consult an
attorney according to inter-Korean accords governing joint economic ventures,
said Unification Ministry spokeswoman Lee Jong-joo. North Korea may fine or expel
South Koreans violating its law, but cannot try them in its territory, she said.
Lee ruled out any connection between the detention of the South Korean worker and
the U.S. journalists, saying "they occurred in separate places for separate
reasons."
There have been several cases of South Korean workers and tourists being detained
in the North, but the latest incident raises special concerns as it comes amid
frosty relations on the peninsula and just days ahead of the announced dates for
North Korea's rocket launch.
Yoo Ho-yeol, a North Korean studies professor at Korea University in Seoul, said
Pyongyang would want to have regional countries on full alert to maximize the
effects of its rocket launch, he said.
"North Korea has seized and is sternly dealing with what would usually have been
brushed off," Yoo said. "By raising tensions, it wants to raise its voice in
negotiations to come."
Early Tuesday, the North said the two U.S. reporters will be indicted for
"illegal entry" and "hostile acts," dampening prospects for their early release.
Euna Lee and Laura Ling, who work for Current TV, a San Francisco-based Internet
news outlet, were taken by North Korean soldiers on March 17 along the North's
border with China while working on a story about North Korean defectors.
In Kaesong, just an hour's drive from Seoul, 101 small garment and other
labor-intensive South Korean firms are currently operating at the South
Korean-funded industrial complex, which employs some 39,000 North Korean workers.
The Kaesong venture is the only major cross-border project that remains intact
between the two divided Koreas. Other visible projects, including tours to Mount
Kumgang and historic sites in Kaesong, an ancient Korean capital, have all been
suspended.
North Korea barred South Korean border crossings to the joint complex several
times earlier this month in protest of an annual U.S.-South Korean joint military
exercise.
The North also expelled hundreds of South Korean workers and curtailed border
traffic in December in retaliation against the Seoul government's toughened
stance on Pyongyang's nuclear arms.
