Families of NKorea fishermen nabbed by SKoreans demand their return

PYONGYANG, March 10 (Itar-Tass) - Families of North Korean fishermen,
detained by South Koreans, demanded their immediate return home, reports the KCNA news agency on Thursday.
According to the news agency, they noted in a message of protest,
addressed to the South Korean Ministry of Unification, that each of 31
fishermen that are now in custody, "expressed, for sure, a desire to
return to their Homeland". However, Seoul announced an intention to retain four of them who decided to stay in South Korea.
"We don't wish to be members of divided families; it is difficult even to imagine that parents are separated from their children, husbands from wives in a peacetime, not in war," the message emphasises.
Earlier, North Korea repeatedly suggested arranging a meeting for
fishermen that had decided to stay in the South, with relatives at the
Phanmujom border point in the demilitarised zone so that they should
confirm an intention in their presence.
A notification, sent by chairman of the North Korean Red Cross
Society, notes that if the South Korean side would duck, as before, from holding such a meeting, Pyongyang intends "to examine such actions as a plot to abduct the North Korean citizens and will take appropriate resolute measures".
According to the North Korean version, the fishermen got lost on
February 5 under conditions of a thick fog in an area of the Yellow Sea and were detained by South Korean authorities.