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Seoul Repatriates 63 to Pyongyang via Panmunjom
South Korea repatriated 63 "unconverted" people to the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) through the truce village of Panmunjom Saturday morning.
The repatriates, mostly in their 70s, who were released in recent years after serving 15 to 45 years in South Korean prison for alleged espionage and guerrilla activities on behalf of the DPRK, refuse to renounce their communist ideology and are eager to return to the DPRK.
The repatriation is part of an inter-Korean agreement reached at the end of June under the North-South Joint Declaration issued at the close of the historic inter-Korean summit between South Korean President Kim Dae-jung and DPRK leader Kim Jong Il in Pyongyang on June 13-15 this year.
The DPRK returnees left the Pukak Park Hotel in northern Seoul at 8:00 a.m. Saturday (2300 GMT Friday) and arrived at the Freedom House on the southern side of the military demarcation line (MDL) in Panmunjom.
They crossed to the northern side of the DML at 10 a.m. Saturday after DPRK officials received the repatriates' medical checklists from South Korean officials.
On Friday, they received a medical check-up and a briefing on the repatriation process at the hotel.
Initially, Pyongyang proposed to fly the returnees back on a direct air route, but finally accepted Seoul's suggestion of using the truce village.
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