Seoul mulls compensation to N. Korea for return of POWs

(ATT: NOTE the new spelling Mount Kumgang in 12th para. The change from Geumgang to
Kumgang is in conformity with North Korean Romanization)
By Byun Duk-kun
SEOUL, Dec. 5 (Yonhap) -- South Korea is considering "incentives" that include
financial compensation to North Korea for the return of South Korean soldiers
held prisoner since the end of the Korean War, an official at the defense
ministry said Friday.

At least 560 former South Korean soldiers are still believed to be held in the
communist North since they were taken prisoner during the three-year Korean War,
the official said, asking not to be identified due to the sensitivity of the
issue.
Pyongyang strongly denies holding any South Korean prisoners of war (POW),
claiming South Korean soldiers now in the North defected voluntarily.
"In July 1953, when the Korean Armistice Agreement was signed, the United Nations
Command estimated some 82,000 South Korean soldiers were taken prisoner. Only
some 8,300 of them were repatriated at that time as a result of the armistice,"
the official told reporters.
Seoul had in the past offered to provide what the official called "significant
incentives," mostly in the form of economic or humanitarian assistance, if
Pyongyang agreed to resolve the issue. Tens of thousands of South Koreans have
remained separated from their loved ones in the North for over five decades.
"The proposal is not yet finalized, but the government is considering various
ways, such as providing incentives to the North, to win their return," the
official said, noting such incentives could include monetary compensation.
He refused to comment on how much money could be offered in exchange for the
return of each South Korean POW.
Families of South Korean POWs and citizens kidnapped to the communist North
welcomed the move, though they noted it comes much too late.
"We cannot sit around forever, just trying to come up with ways to have them
returned to the country. These people are already very old and most of them will
pass away within the next 10 years," said Lee Mi-il, head of the Korean War
Abductees Family Association.
Many South Koreans oppose giving any cash to the communist North out of fear that
the money could aid the impoverished nation's development of weapons of mass
destruction or nuclear weapons.
Lee dismissed the fears not only as groundless, but also as absurd.
"We have been giving money to North Korea in exchange for various tourism
projects to Kaesong and Mount Kumkang. This was hard currency paid not in
exchange for people, but for tours that people really could have chosen not to
take," she said in a telephone interview with Yonhap News Agency.
A total of 76 South Korean POWs, including six this year, have returned to South
Korea since the end of the 1950-53 war, but only after they had first defected
from the communist North, according to the defense ministry.
bdk@yna.co.kr
(END)