SOUTH KOREA/JAPAN: Military talks between North Korea and the UN are delayed, while North Korean defectors hold anti-North protest in Tokyo

Record ID: 465519

  • Title: SOUTH KOREA/JAPAN: Military talks between North Korea and the UN are delayed, while North Korean defectors hold anti-North protest in Tokyo
  • Date: 15th July 2010
  • Summary: PAJU, SOUTH KOREA (JULY 14, 2010) (REUTERS) TRUCE VILLAGE OF PANMUNJOM NORTH KOREAN GUARD LOOKING AT SOUTH KOREAN SIDE THROUGH BINOCULARS SOUTH KOREAN GUARDS VIEW OF PANJUMJON STONE WITH SIGNBOARD READING 'DORASAN OBSERVATORY' VIEW OF NORTH KOREA NORTH KOREAN FLAG TOURISTS LOOKING AT NORTH KOREAN SIDE THROUGH BINOCULARS (SOUNDBITE) (Korean) 56-YEAR-OLD SOUTH KOREAN TOURIST LEE BEOM-YONG SAYING: "For the sake of the unification between North and South Korea, North Korea should apologize and admit its every fault on Cheonan Incident. After that, the six-party talks should be held, so that this situation can be resolved in a peaceful way." TOURISTS LOOKING AT NORTH KOREAN VIEW THROUGH BINOCULARS NORTH KOREAN MILITARY POST TOURISTS (SOUNDBITE) (Korean) 76-YEAR-OLD SOUTH KOREAN TOURIST LEE GAE-SOON SAYING: "I believe that Cheonan Incident has occurred mainly due to the fact that North and South Korea are not yet united. The truth of this incident will be revealed through continued investigations. However, if we're able to be generous with the North, the fact that North Korea has requested a six-party talk is in fact a good news. VARIOUS OF CARS CROSSING THE BORDER AND MOVING TOWARD THE NORTH VIEW OF NORTH KOREA TOKYO, JAPAN (JULY 14, 2010) (REUTERS) NORTH KOREAN DEFECTORS DEMONSTRATING IN FRONT OF THE GENERAL ASSOCIATION OF KOREAN RESIDENCES IN JAPAN (SO-REN) SO-REN SIGNBOARD PROTESTERS SHOUTING PROTESTERS RALLYING NORTH KOREAN LEADER KIM JONG-IL'S EFFIGY AND NORTH KOREAN FLAG PROTESTER SLAMMING KIM JONG-IL EFFIGY AND NORTH KOREAN FLAG ON GROUND PROTESTERS RIPPING OFF KIM JONG-IL EFFIGY AND TRAMPLING ON IT PROTESTER TEARING APART NORTH KOREAN FLAG MORE OF PROTESTER TRAMPLING ON KIM JONG-IL EFFIGY HEAD OF KIM JONG-IL EFFIGY BEING TRAMPLED ON (SOUNDBITE) (Korean) PARK GUN-HEE, 72-YEAR-OLD NORTH KOREAN DEFECTOR, SAYING: "We came here to condemn the General Association of Korean Residences in Japan, a spy of North Korea which kidnapped many innocent people." (SOUNDBITE) (Korean) PARK SANG-HAK, CHAIRMAN OF FIGHTERS FOR FREE NORTH KOREA, SAYING: "The General Association of Korean Residences in Japan should stop being the cat's-paw of the North Korean dictator regime while ignoring the suffering of the people there, and join the fight we are conducting against the military dictatorship for the sake of 20 million people in the North." LEAFLETS BEING PUT INTO PAPER BAG PAPER BAG BEING PUT UNDER DOOR OF SO-REN HEADQUARTERS LEAFLETS UNDER DOOR POLICE OFFICERS IN FRONT OF SO-REN HEADQUARTERS
  • Embargoed: 30th July 2010 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Reuters ID: LVA6ZW45HTMJOB9ZPJZ6OIZ7ZL3X
  • Story Text: The demilitarized zone dividing the two Koreas is quiet after military talks between North Korea and the U.S.-led United Nations Command in South Korea were rescheduled. A small group of defectors in Tokyo denounce a North Korean society in Japan as a spy group for the communist leader Kim Jong-il.
    The demilitarized zone (DMZ), dividing North and South Korea looked quiet on Wednesday (July 14) as the Korean peninsula entered a new political phase after the North offered dialogue with the U.S. -led United Nations Command to discuss the "Cheonan incident".
    North Korea first rejected a call by the U.N. Command to meet and discuss any violation of the armistice that ended the 1950-53 Korean War.
    It later changed its position and said it would accept such a meeting, after Seoul rejected its proposal to send a military team to inspect the sunken ship.
    The meeting has been delayed by the North's request, but the U.N. Command said in a statement it will be held on Thursday (July 15) at the truce village, Panmunjon, at the DMZ.
    Tensions have escalated on the Korean peninsula after a South Korean warship, the Cheonan, sank near the disputed maritime border with North Korea in the Yellow Sea on March 26 following an explosion.
    North Korea insists it had nothing to do with the incident, but in May a panel of investigators from five countries concluded a North Korean submarine torpedoed the ship.
    North and South Korea are still technically at war since the 1950-53 Korean War ended in a truce without a peace treaty.
    At Panmunjom North and South Korean soldiers faced each other in silence.
    Groups of local and foreign tourists looked over to the North Korean side of the DMZ with binoculars at an observatory nearby.
    Some of the South Korean tourists said it was not the right time for the North to hold talks.
    "For the sake of the unification between North and South Korea, North Korea should apologize and admit its every fault in the Cheonan incident. After that, the six-party talks should be held, so that this situation can be resolved in a peaceful way," said 56-year-old Lee Beom-yong.
    Other tourists welcomed the North's willingness for talks, saying may lead to a peaceful resolution to the problems on the Korean peninsula.
    "I believe that the Cheonan incident occurred mainly due to the fact that North and South Korea are not yet united. The truth of this incident will be revealed through continued investigations. However, if we're able to be generous with the North, the fact that North Korea has requested a six-party talk is, in fact, good news," said 76-year-old Lee Gae-soon.
    A joint team of investigators involving military officers and civilian experts from South Korea, the United States and Sweden in May accused the North of launching a torpedo attack on the South The U.N. Security Council in a statement condemned the attack but did not directly blame the North. The North denies it was involved in the sinking and has accused the South of masterminding a fabrication for political gain.
    Meanwhile, four North Korean defectors demonstrated on Wednesday in front of the General Association of Korean Residences in Japan condemning it as a spy for the communist leader Kim Jong-il, whose effigy was ripped apart and trampled on by the protesters.
    "We came here to condemn the General Association of Korean Residences in Japan, a spy of North Korea which kidnapped many innocent people," Park Gun-hee, a 72-year-old who escaped the suppressed country in 1998, told Reuters.
    Protesters alleged the association had been the advocate of the reclusive regime while closing its eyes to the suffering of the people in the North.
    "The General Association of Korean Residences in Japan should stop being the cat's-paw of the North Korean dictator regime while ignoring the suffering of the people there, and join the fight we are conducting against the military dictatorship for the sake of 20 million people in the North," said Park Sang-hak, another defector from the North who chairs an anti-North Korea group, "Fighters for Free North Korea."
    At the end of the rally, leaflets containing statements condemning North Korean behaviour, including the recent sinking of South Korean warship and the kidnapping of South Koreans and Japanese, were put under the gate of the association's building.
    Experts said the North was trying to put the Cheonan incident behind it by offering to talk.
    South Korea and the United States reacted with scepticism, saying the North must show it was genuinely interested in easing tensions first by apologising for the ship incident.
    The foreign and defence ministers of the two allies will meet in Seoul next week to discuss strengthening security ties.
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