(LEAD) N. Korea willing to return war prisoners in exchange for economic benefits:

(ATTN: CHANGES dateline to add Seoul, UPDATES with defense ministry's earlier position from 3rd para)
BEIJING/SEOUL, Dec. 22 (Yonhap) -- North Korea has conveyed to South Korea that
it is willing to return some South Korean war prisoners and civilian abductees in
exchange for economic benefits, sources said Monday.

Pyongyang made the proposal through various channels, hoping to resume
inter-Korean economic exchange projects that have been suspended amid chilled
ties this year, the sources well-versed in North Korean issues said on condition
of anonymity.
An official of South Korea's defense ministry had said earlier this month that it
is considering "incentives" that include financial compensation to North Korea
for the return of South Korean soldiers held there since the 1950-53 Korean War.
At least 560 former South Korean soldiers are still believed to be held in the
communist North since they were taken prisoner during the war, the official said,
asking not to be identified due to the sensitivity of the issue.
Pyongyang has strongly denied holding any South Korean prisoners of war, claiming
South Korean soldiers now in the North defected voluntarily.
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.
The Unification Ministry said it was not aware of the North Korean proposal.
"I've not heard of it," Kim Ho-nyoun, the ministry spokesman, said.
Unification Minister Kim Ha-joong is currently visiting Beijing to meet with
senior Chinese officials on the North Korean nuclear stalemate and frozen
inter-Korean relations.
bdk@yna.co.kr
(END)