Latest news with #anti-NorthKorean
Straits Times
09-07-2025
- Politics
- Straits Times
South Korea returns 6 North Koreans stranded at sea in 2025
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox The North Koreans had expressed a desire on multiple occasions to go back home. SEOUL - South Korea returned on July 9 six North Koreans who had become stranded at sea earlier in 2025 after their vessels had drifted south, Seoul's Unification Ministry said on July 9. The North Koreans had expressed a desire on multiple occasions to go back home, according to the ministry. The repatriation comes as President Lee Jae Myung, who took office on June 4, has promised to improve relations with the nuclear-armed North, saying tensions with Pyongyang have had a real negative economic impact. Mr Lee has called for diplomacy and dialogue with North Korea, and his administration has suspended loudspeaker propaganda broadcasts along the border, while pushing to stop anti-North Korean leaflet campaigns. North Korea, however, did not respond to efforts by South Korea to arrange the repatriation of the six North Koreans. Nonetheless, a North Korean patrol ship was standing by at a transfer point and the six had returned in one of their boats, a ministry official said. REUTERS
AsiaOne
09-07-2025
- Politics
- AsiaOne
South Korea returns 6 North Koreans stranded at sea this year, Asia News
SEOUL — South Korea returned on Wednesday (July 9) six North Koreans who had become stranded at sea earlier this year after their vessels had drifted south, Seoul's Unification Ministry said on Wednesday. The North Koreans had expressed a desire on multiple occasions to go back home, according to the ministry. The repatriation comes as President Lee Jae-myung, who took office on June 4, has promised to improve relations with the nuclear-armed North, saying tensions with Pyongyang have had a real negative economic impact. Lee has called for diplomacy and dialogue with North Korea, and his administration has suspended loudspeaker propaganda broadcasts along the border, while pushing to stop anti-North Korean leaflet campaigns. North Korea, however, did not respond to efforts by South Korea to arrange the repatriation of the six North Koreans. Nonetheless, a North Korean patrol ship was standing by at a transfer point and the six had returned in one of their boats, a ministry official said. [[nid:719926]]
Straits Times
09-07-2025
- Politics
- Straits Times
South Korea returns six North Koreans stranded at sea this year
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox North Korean people work on a military fence near their guard post at the inter-Korean border in this picture taken from the observation deck near the demilitarized zone that separates the two Koreas in Paju, South Korea, June 4, 2024. REUTERS/Kim Hong-Ji/File Photo SEOUL - South Korea returned on Wednesday six North Koreans who had become stranded at sea earlier this year after their vessels had drifted south, Seoul's Unification Ministry said on Wednesday. The North Koreans had expressed a desire on multiple occasions to go back home, according to the ministry. The repatriation comes as President Lee Jae Myung, who took office on June 4, has promised to improve relations with the nuclear-armed North, saying tensions with Pyongyang have had a real negative economic impact. Lee has called for diplomacy and dialogue with North Korea, and his administration has suspended loudspeaker propaganda broadcasts along the border, while pushing to stop anti-North Korean leaflet campaigns. North Korea, however, did not respond to efforts by South Korea to arrange the repatriation of the six North Koreans. Nonetheless, a North Korean patrol ship was standing by at a transfer point and the six had returned in one of their boats, a ministry official said. REUTERS
Hindustan Times
27-06-2025
- Politics
- Hindustan Times
6 Americans caught trying to send rice, Bible to North Korea
Jun 27, 2025 01:11 PM IST Six Americans were detained on Friday in South Korea for trying to send 1,600 plastic bottles filled with rice, US dollars bills and Bibles toward North Korea by sea, police said. According to a police officer who spoke to AP on conditions of anonymity, the Americans tried to throw the bottles in the sea from the front-line of Gwanghwa Island so they could float toward North Korean shores by the tides. Since the new liberal government of President Lee Myung took over, he has been strict against the civilian campaigns to avoid any flare up of tension with North Korea.(AP) The news about the detention of Americans was confirmed by another police officer, however the officer gave no further details regarding the incident. This is however not an isolated incident, activists floating plastic bottles or flying balloons or distributing anti-North Korean propaganda leaflets has long caused tensions on the Korean Peninsula. In the past, North Korea has expressed its anger at such incidents. Last year North Korea launched its own balloons carrying trash into South Korea, including at least two occasions it landed in the presidential compound. In 2023, South Korea Court struck down a law that criminalised the sending of leaflets and other items to North Korea, citing it as an excessive restriction on free speech. But since the new liberal government of President Lee Myung took over, he has been strict against the civilian campaigns to avoid any flare up of tension with North Korea. In a similar incident, on June 14, police detained an activist for allegedly flying balloons toward North Korea from Gwanghwa Island. President Lee's government has promised to restart the talks with North Korea and establish peace. Lee also stopped the frontline anti-Pyongyang propaganda loudspeaker broadcasts to try to ease military tensions. Meanwhile, it remains to be seen whether North Korea will also respond to these attempts by the South after the North vowed to sever relations with South Korea last year and abandon the goal of peaceful Korean reunification. (With AP Inputs)
Korea Herald
24-06-2025
- Politics
- Korea Herald
Abductee family group to consider not sending leaflets to N. Korea
A South Korean civic group representing families of abductees held in North Korea said Tuesday it will consider suspending the distribution of anti-Pyongyang leaflets across the border. Choi Seong-ryong, the head of the group, said he received a positive message by phone from a high-ranking government official on Monday and will later decide whether to stop sending leaflets to North Korea after discussions with group members. The remarks came after Choi told reporters a week ago that his group is willing to halt the leaflet distribution if President Lee Jae Myung helps confirm the life or death of abductees through dialogue with the North and meets and comforts families of the abductees, particularly those in their 90s. This year, Choi's group sent anti-North Korean leaflets across the border by balloons or drones from Imjingak in Paju on April 27, from Cheorwon in Gangwon Province on May 8 and from a border area in Paju on June 2. But the Lee government has said it will consider revising the relevant laws and take steps to block the distribution of anti-North leaflets from the border areas. "The current government officials understand the abduction issue better than anyone else and they have helped us a lot in the past. I hope this government will definitely create an opportunity to confirm the life or death of the abduction victims through inter-Korean dialogue," said Choi in a meeting with reporters after paying his respects at the Belgium-Luxembourg War Memorial in Dongducheon, north of Seoul, to mark the 75th anniversary of the 1950-53 Korean War. Choi's father was kidnapped in 1967 while fishing near Yeonpyeong Island in the Yellow Sea and executed in North Korea in 1972 due to his history of cooperating with the US military during the Korean War. (Yonhap)
