Seoul not mulling dispatch of envoy to free S. Koreans in North

(ATTN: RECASTS headline, lead; CLARIFIES para 4, 8-10; UPDATES with more details,
opposition party's remarks at bottom)
By Tony Chang
SEOUL, Aug. 6 (Yonhap) -- Seoul is not considering sending a special envoy to
North Korea to negotiate the release of a South Korean detainee and four others
being held there, the government said Thursday, despite the success of the United
States in winning the release of two American detainees from the communist state.
North Korea has been holding a 44-year-old South Korean identified only by his
surname Yu since he was detained in late March at the troubled inter-Korean
industrial park in the border town of Kaesong. The Kaesong worker has been
accused of criticizing the North's political system and attempting to persuade a
female North Korean worker to defect to the South.
Pyongyang has refused to give out any information on his whereabouts and has
consistently denied requests by Seoul for access to him.
North Korea is also holding four crewmen of a squid-fishing boat, which was towed
to a port on the country's east coast a week ago after reportedly straying 13km
past the inter-Korean maritime border.
"We are not in the process of considering sending a special envoy to the North
... but we are doing everything we can to secure their freedom," Chun Hae-sung,
spokesman for the Unification Ministry, said at a daily press briefing.
Former U.S. President Bill Clinton went into Pyongyang on Tuesday and
successfully won the release of two American journalists, Laura Ling and Euna
Lee, who were captured at the North Korea-China border on March 17 while working
on a news story about refugees fleeing out of North Korea. They arrived in the
U.S. on Wednesday.
While Washington labeled the trip as strictly a private mission, observers
believe that it was coordinated by the U.S. administration.
Chun said Seoul requested through maritime communication channels that the North
release the boat and its crew. The South has been notified that the men were
still "under investigation."
Apart from day-to-day maritime and land communications regarding border area
activities, virtually all high-level channels between the two Koreas were shut
down after South Korean President Lee Myung-bak took office in February last year
with a vow to link cross-border rapprochement with North Korean denuclearization
efforts.
Relations chilled even more after North Korea conducted its second nuclear test
on May 25, followed by a round of missile tests in the following days.
"There are no government-to-government communications channel at the moment due
to the North's unilateral cutoff of communication. Therefore, we are utilizing
maritime channels to check on the North's position regarding the matter," said
Chun.
Lee Kang-rae, floor leader of the main opposition Democratic Party, proposed on
Wednesday that Seoul announce a full-fledged revision of its policy on North
Korea during President Lee Myung-bak's scheduled speech to commemorate South
Korea's Independence Day, which falls on August 15. The opposition leader also
suggested that Seoul send a special envoy to North Korea to secure the release of
those held.
He slammed North Korea for treating the issue of South Korean and American
detainees differently.
"We're disappointed at North Korea for discriminating between South Korea and the
U.S. while on the other hand stressing the 'together with our people' spirit,'"
Lee said during a meeting with the party leadership on Thursday.
"North Korea's attitude of releasing the U.S. journalists while holding Yu and
the crew members is creating a consensus in the South that there is something
wrong with the North's attitude," Lee said.
odissy@yna.co.kr
(END)