Cash Offer for N. Korea to Return Abductees, POWs
By Kim Sue-young
Staff Reporter
The Ministry of Unification is considering the offer of cash or commodities to North Korea in exchange for the repatriation of South Korean abductees and prisoners of war (POWs) held in the North, a report said Tuesday.
The ministry will make public the plan in a briefing session scheduled today at Cheong Wa Dae, the report said, quoting a presidential aide.
``It is not a fundamental solution that family members of abductees and POWs are just invited to a displaced family reunion,'' the official was quoted as saying.
``Citing a previous German repatriation case, we asked for the ministry to find out methods that can yield some results,'' he said.
Between 1963 and 1989, West Germany sent cash and goods worth 3.4 billion German marks (approximately $13 billion) to East Germany in a bid to repatriate 34,000 displaced people.
West Germany initially offered cash, but later opted to give commodities such as crude oil, copper and coffee.
According to the Seoul government, nearly 490 abducted South Korean citizens and 560 POWs are currently detained in the North, but Pyongyang has denied their existence.
Learning a lesson from the German case, the ministry will present some measures during a policy briefing for the coming year, according to the report.
The briefing was originally set for early next month, but President Lee Myung-bak instructed government offices to bring the date forward in order to ensure a quick start to work in the New Year.
As for humanitarian aid to the famine-hit North, the ministry is considering sending staple products which can improve the quality of life of North Koreans.
``North Korea lacks basic commodities such as sanitary napkins and soaps,'' the report quoted an intelligence official as saying.
The ministry also wants to use various channels to resume inter-Korean dialogue.
When the talks restart, the government will expand economic cooperation with the North, including the promotion of a project to build a gas pipeline to Russia, it said.
Inter-Korean relations have soured since Lee took office in February with a vow to toughen the country's stance toward the North.
As a retaliatory measure, Pyongyang cut off communication channels with Seoul and banned South Koreans from traveling to its tourism enclaves in Gaeseong and Mt. Geumgang from Dec. 1.
The Stalinist state also expelled more than half of the South Korean workers in the joint industrial complex in Gaeseong and restricted border crossings.
The Korean War (1950-53) left the two Koreas still technically at war since it ended with an armistice, not a peace treaty.