Response to Inter-Korean Red Cross Working Contact Urged Again

Pyongyang, April 2 (KCNA) -- The chairman of the C.C., the DPRK Red Cross Society Friday sent a notice to the president of the south Korean Red Cross, again urging response to the proposed north-south Red Cross working contact. The south Korean authorities have refused the contact for discussing the matter for face-to-face confirmation and repatriation of the four inhabitants of the DPRK detained in south Korea.
Expressing regret over their refusal, the notice said: The irrefutable fact that the south side persistently conducted "operation for defection" among our citizens has been disclosed by 27 inhabitants who returned to the north side on March 27.
If there was no "operation for defection" by the south side and "defection" of the four inhabitants was made at their "own will", there will be no reason to deny the north side's confirmation through face-to-face meeting, it said.
It further said: If the south Korean authorities still stand against the face-to-face meeting with the four detainees, we cannot but recognize that they have been abducted through appeasement. Such attitude will seriously affect the north-south relations.
The notice strongly demanded immediate Red Cross working contact.