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N. Korea urges S. Korea to send all rescued N. Korean sailors back home

July 8, 2015

Guarded by South Korean naval ships, fishing boats operate in a fishing ground off Jeo Island in the Goseong region of South Korea’s east coast on April 10, 2015, as the country’s northernmost fishing ground bordering North Korea opened the same day. The Jeo Island fishing ground in the East Sea is open to South Korean fishermen from April to December every year. (Yonhap)

SEOUL, July 8 (Yonhap) — North Korea called on South Korea on Wednesday to repatriate all five North Korean fishermen rescued in the South’s waters last week, threatening to take “stern actions” if Seoul refuses to do so.

They were rescued by the South’s coast guard on Saturday while drifting on a vessel near the eastern island of Ulleung. Three have expressed wishes to defect to South Korea while two others want to return home, according to the Unification Ministry.

North Korea’s key propaganda website, Uriminjokkiri, said that the North’s Red Cross sent a notice to its southern counterpart demanding the immediate repatriation of all the fishermen.

“If South Korea continues to detain the North’s fishermen without repatriating all of them, the North will take stern actions,” it said. “Seoul should immediately send them back to the North.”

The South’s ministry informed the North on Tuesday that two sailors will be repatriated through the truce village of Panmunjom, but Pyongyang urged the Seoul government to send back all of them at once.

“The government’s stance is to send only the two fishermen who wish to go back home. South Korea plans to take necessary measures on the basis of humanitarian principles,” the ministry said in a statement.

The North’s warning came just a few hours after Pyongyang threatened to cancel a plan by the widow of former President Kim Dae-jung to visit the North in early August if South Korea continues to make provocations against Pyongyang.

Tension on a divided peninsula remains still high over North Korea’s provocative actions, including its launch of a ballistic missile from a submarine in May.

Despite such tension, the two Koreas have a practice of repatriating civilians who accidentally land in each other’s territory.

In what could be seen as a conciliatory tit-for-tat, South Korea sent home five North Korean fishermen on humanitarian grounds in mid-June as they were rescued while drifting on a vessel in waters off its east coast.

A day earlier, the North repatriated two South Koreans who allegedly snuck into the communist nation in May during their trip to China.