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Ex-N Korea football coach defects

Thursday, March 11th, 2004

BBC
3/11/2004

The former coach of North Korea’s national football team has defected to the South, according to the Yonhap news agency.

It reports that the South Korean intelligence service has had 56-year-old Mun Ki-nam in protective custody since he arrived in Seoul in January

He coached the North Korean team from 1999 to 2000.

An unnamed government official said Mr Mun escaped from the North in August last year, along with his wife and four children.

He reportedly took refuge at South Korea’s embassy in Beijing in mid-January.

Mr Mun was also involved in coaching a pan-Korean side which took part in a youth football championship in Portugal in 1991.

Another North Korean football coach, Yun Myong-chan, defected to the South in 1999.

Posted in Civil society, Emigration, Football (soccer), Sports | Comments Closed

Summary of DPRK technological efforts

Monday, December 1st, 2003

From the Office of the National Counterintelligence Executive:

North Korea: Channeling Foreign Information Technology, Information to Regime Goals Pyongyang is working with Koreans abroad and other foreign partners in information technology (IT) ventures, sending software developers overseas for exposure to international trends, granting scientists access to foreign data, and developing new sources of overseas information in a bid to develop the economy. Cellular telephones and Web pages are accessible to some North Koreans, while foreigners in Pyongyang have access to foreign television news and an Internet café. While such steps are opening windows on the world, however, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) oficials are largely limiting such exposure to areas required for economic development. Moreover, they are applying IT tools to develop new means of indoctrinating the public in North Korea and reaching audiences overseas.

Working With Foreign Partners in IT Ventures
North Korea is promoting cooperative ventures with foreign partners to develop IT, which DPRK media have repeatedly described as a priority area in science and technology. An editorial in the 10 November 2003 issue of the party newspaper Nodong Sinmun, for example, named IT as the first of three technical fields, along with nanotechnology and bioengineering, to which “primary efforts should be directed.”

North Korean media suggest that officials have grasped the potential of leveraging IT for national development. A recent article in the government’s newspaper asserted that (1) “IT trade surpasses the automobile and crude oil industries” and (2) “IT goods are more favorable in developing countries than they are in the developed nations” (Minju Choson, 7 March).

ROK analysts, such as those who compiled a survey of Pyongyang’s IT industry (Puhkan-ui IT Hyonhwang-mit Nambuk Kyoryu Hyomnyok Pangan, 1 January), have suggested that DPRK policies for promoting a domestic IT industry reflect the nation’s lack of capital, dearth of natural resources, and relative abundance of technical talent. Hoonnet.com CEO Kim Pom-hun, whose extensive experience in North Korea includes residence in Pyongyang from December 2001 to October 2002, has assessed North Korean IT manpower as resembling “an open mine with the world’s best reserves of high-quality ore” ( Wolgan Choson, 1 January).

Pyongyang is partnering with Koreans in South Korea, Japan, and China, as well as Chinese, in ventures to develop both software and hardware, including:

The Morning-Panda Joint Venture Company in Pyongyang, a partnership between North Korea’s Electronic Products Development Company and China’s Panda Electronic Group, which began making computers in late 2002.
The Pyongyang Informatics Center (PIC) and South Korea’s Pohang University of Science and Technology (PUST), which are cooperating to develop virtual reality technology. In addition:
The ROK’s Hanabiz.com and PIC launched the Hana Program Center in Dandong, China, in August 2001 (http://hanabiz.com/history.html) for joint software development and training of DPRK programmers.
IMRI—ROK manufacturer of computer peripherals—and CGS—a Tokyo-based software company affiliated with the pro-Pyongyang General Association of Korean Residents in Japan (GAKRJ, a.k.a. Chosen Soren)—joined hands in July 2000 to form UNIKOTECH (Unification of Korea Technologies) to develop and market software. Both partners maintain links to North Korean IT enterprises.
The ROK’s Samsung Electronics and the DPRK’s Korea Computer Center (KCC) have been developing software together at a Samsung research center in Beijing since March 2000 (Chonja Sinmun, 15 October).

Venturing Overseas To acquire information on foreign IT trends and to promote their domestic industry, North Koreans have begun venturing overseas in recent years.

State Software Industry General Bureau Director Han U-ch’ol led a DPRK delegation in late September 2003 to the China International Software and Information Service Fair in Dalian. The North Koreans joined specialists from China and South Korea in describing conditions in their respective IT industries and calling for mutual cooperation. Participants from China and the two Koreas expanded on the theme of cooperation at the IT Exchange Symposium, sponsored by the Dalian Information Industry Association, Pyongyang’s State Software Industry General Bureau, and Seoul’s Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST). Dalian Alios Technical Consulting, a company run by Chinese Korean Yi Sung-nam, hosted the exchange (www.kotra.or.kr, 15 October, http://hanabiz.com, 9 October).
Pyongyang opened, in April 2002 in Beijing, its first foreign exhibition of DPRK software products developed by Kim Il-song University, Korea Computer Center (KCC), PIC, and other centers of software development (DPRK Korea Infobank, 16 May 2002).
KCC Deputy Chief Technician Kim Ki-ch’ol led a delegation of DPRK computer technicians to the World PC Expo 2001, held in September 2001 outside Tokyo. KCC has worked with Digiko Soft—a company run by a Korean resident of Japan—to develop commercial software. Through Digiko Soft, the expo was the first show in Japan “of computer software developed in [North] Korea” (Choson Sinbo, 22 October, 1 October 2001).
KCC computer programmers Chong Song-hwa and Sim Song-ho won first place in August 2003 in a world championship software competition of go—an Asian game of strategy—held in Japan. KCC teams have visited Japan and China on at least eight occasions since 1997 to compete in program contests for go, taking first prize three times.

Gaining Access to Foreign Data North Korea has been acquiring foreign technical information from a variety of sources in recent years, benefiting from developments in technology, warming ties between the Koreas, and longstanding sympathies of many Korean residents in Japan.

Authorities have held the annual Pyongyang International Scientific and Technological Book Exhibition since 2001, bringing foreign vendors and organizations related to S&T publications to North Korea (KCNA, 18 August).
The Trade and Economy Institute, advertised as North Korea’s “sole consulting service provider” on international trade, has been exchanging information with “many countries via Internet” since September 2002 (Foreign Trade of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, 1 April).
According to PUST President Pak Ch’an-mo, who has extensive DPRK contacts in academic and scientific circles, North Korea has been purchasing technical books from amazon.com and from South Korea (Kwahak-kwa Kisul, 1 April).
Pro-Pyongyang Korean residents of Japan have long sent technical literature to North Korea.
ROK organizations, including PUST and IT publisher youngjin.com, have been donating technical publications on IT in recent years to DPRK counterparts as a means of earning good will and contributing to the eventual unification of Korea (Chonja Sinmun, 11 August).

Cell Phones, Web Pages, and NHK
Within North Korea, the advance of IT technology has been suggested by a number of recent developments:

Approximately 3,000 residents of Pyongyang and Nason have reportedly purchased cell phone service since November 2002 (The People’s Korea, 1 March).
Installation of a nationwide optical-fiber cable network in 2000, launch of the Kwangmyong 2000 Intranet the same year, and establishment of computer networks have made available domestic access to extensive technical databases maintained by the Central Scientific and Technological Information Agency, the Grand People’s Study House, and other repositories of technical information.
Via North Korea’s Silibank Web site (www.silibank.com), established in Shenyang, China, in September 2001, registered foreign users can exchange e-mails with DPRK members.
In August 2002, Kim Pom-hun, CEO of the ROK IT company Hoonnet.com, opened an Internet café in Pyongyang, the only place in North Korea for the public to access the Internet. Most customers of the service, which uses an optical cable linking Pyongyang and Shanghai via Sinuiju, are foreign diplomatic officials or international agency staffers; steep fees reportedly keep most Koreans from going on line (Wolgan Choson, 1 January).
Foreign guests in Pyongyang hotels have had access to foreign news broadcasts of Britain’s BBC and Japan’s NHK since May 2003, according to a Japanese television report (TBS Television, 2 September).

Limiting Information to Technical Areas, Harnessing IT for Domestic Indoctrination and Foreign Propaganda Development of the nation, rather than empowerment of the individual, appears to be driving DPRK efforts to develop domestic IT infrastructure and industry. Officials, scientists, and traders can now access and exchange information pertinent to their duties within the domestic Kwangmyong Intranet. Those with a “need to know” can even surf the worldwide Web for the latest foreign data. While Kim Chong-il reportedly watches CNN and NHK satellite broadcasts (Kin Seinichi no Ryorinin, 30 June) and supposedly surfs the Internet, the public has no such freedom to learn of the outside world without the filter of official propaganda.

Indeed, Pyongyang is using IT to indoctrinate the public and put its propaganda before foreign audiences. In addition to studying the party line through regular group reading of Nodong Sinmun in hard copy, a practice for indoctrinating members of work units throughout North Korea, the installation of computer networks now brings the newspaper to some workplaces on line, as the photograph below shows:

Moreover, Pyongyang has put its propaganda on the Internet.

KCNA offers Pyongyang’s line in English, Korean, and Spanish at a Web site in Japan at www.kcna.co.jp.
News and views of the General Association of Korean Residents in Japan and its affiliated organizations appear on the group’s site at www.chongryon.com.
DPRK media, including newspapers Minju Choson and Nodong Sinmun, have appeared on sites originating in China, such as www.dprkorea.com and www.uriminzokkiri.com.

Posted in Biotech, Cell phones, China, Chongryun, Communications, Domestic publication, Electronic Products Development Company, Foreign direct investment, International trade, Internet, Japan, Korea Computer Center (KCC), Pyongyang Informatics Center (PIC), Silibank, South Korea, State Software Industry General Bureau | Comments Closed

Koreans unite for student games

Wednesday, August 20th, 2003

BBC
8/20/2003

More than 200 North Korean athletes, officials and journalists have arrived in South Korea for the World Student Games, after days of political wrangling.

The North Korean delegation flew south for the games at Daegu, after reversing a decision to withdraw from the event over a recent anti-North flag-burning protest in the South Korean capital Seoul.

The row erupted at a delicate time for inter-Korean relations, just a week before crucial talks on the North’s nuclear weapons programme are due to get under way.

In a further sign that relations between the two sides are thawing, both Koreas have agreed in principle to field a unified team for the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens.

The agreement was announced on Wednesday in a joint statement by the two delegations attending the Daegu games.

Athletes from North and South Korea marched behind a single “Korean Peninsula” flag for the first time at the 2000 Sydney Olympics but they competed as separate countries during the actual competition.

North Korea also sent a large delegation to last year’s Asian Games, participating for the first time in a major sporting event hosted by South Korea.

The BBC’s Charles Scanlon in Seoul says the North’s participation in those games was seen as an important symbol of warming ties.

But he says the next big test will come next week in Beijing, when the North Koreans sit down with their Asian neighbours and the United States for six-party talks aimed at putting a stop to Pyongyang’s nuclear ambitions.

Triumphant arrival

The North Korean delegation arrived in the South on Wednesday waving their hands and smiling at supporters waiting for them at the airport.

“Brothers in the South, we are happy to see you,” said Jon Guk-man, head of the North Korean delegation.

Reuters news agency said South Korea was paying all the expenses for the North’s team, which organisers consider a major draw in an event short on big sporting names.

North Korea’s about-face over its decision to boycott the games came after South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun expressed regret for last Friday’s anti-North protest, describing it as “inappropriate”.

Mr Roh’s government has been struggling to maintain good relations with Pyongyang, despite signs that the North is pushing ahead with the development of nuclear weapons.

His conciliatory remarks contrasted with comments by US President George W Bush on Monday, who said that North Korean leader Kim Jong-il was a “dangerous man” who loved “rattling sabres”.

Pyongyang has repeatedly warned that the US must change its “hostile policy” towards the North if forthcoming Beijing talks, which will also include Washington, are to make progress.

Posted in Civil society, Sports | Comments Closed

Koreans hold emotional reunion

Friday, June 27th, 2003

BBC
6/27/2003

More than 100 elderly South Koreans travelled to the North on Friday for a tearful reunion with relatives they had not seen since the Korean war ended nearly 50 years ago.

Tens of thousands of Koreans have been cut off from their families – with no mail, telephone service or other form of communication between them.

But since the two sides held an unprecedented summit in 2000, there have been seven rounds of temporary reunions, allowing a lucky few to see each other again – all-be-it for only a few days.

The reunions are always surrounded by intense emotion, not least because many of those desperate to be reunited with their relatives are becoming increasingly frail.

Thousands die every year before getting the chance to be reunited with loved ones.

Friday’s trip to North Korea’s Diamond Mountain resort, included three South Koreans aged more than 100 years old.

Chun Eung-oh, 85, said she did not want to return to the South and leave her son, Park Un Jin, 65, in the North.

“When I return, I will be alone. I have no one in the South. Can I live with you?” she asked her son, who was unable to answer.

Both Koreas have agreed to set up a permanent family reunion centre, where separated relatives could meet more easily.

But tensions over North Korea’s nuclear ambitions have cast doubt over the proposals, and lessened the hopes of many thousands of families.

‘Grave threat’

More than a million people crowded Pyongyang’s streets for anti-American rallies on Wednesday, as part of the government commemorations marking the 53rd anniversary of the outbreak of the Korean War.

On Friday, the American ambassador to Japan, Howard Baker, said North Korea posed a “grave” threat to world peace.

“I hope they understand that time is not on their side,” he said, adding that “sooner or later, patience expires”.

He urged the Stalinist state to take steps to abandon its nuclear programme as soon as possible.

He also suggested that Washington was unlikely to continue with plans to construct nuclear power plants in North Korea, if Pyongyang did not put a stop to its weapons programme.

“My guess is that if… they do not decide to engage in dismantlement of their weapons programme, it is unlikely that the United States would support the completion of those reactors beyond the commitments that we’ve undertaken in the framework agreement,” Mr Baker said.

But Japan signalled on Friday that it was not yet ready to abandon the project.

“We are not presently thinking of putting an end to it,” said Japanese Foreign Minister Yoriko Kawaguchi.

The US$4.6bn construction project, backed by the US, the European Union, Japan and South Korea, has been in doubt since the US claimed last year that Pyongyang had admitted to a secret nuclear programme.

The project was designed to build two light-water reactors in North Korea, as part of a 1994 agreement to keep the Korean Peninsula free of nuclear weapons.

Posted in Civil society | Comments Closed

Koreas brought together by film

Thursday, May 15th, 2003

BBC
5/15/2003

The divided Korean peninsula is set to be brought together by a feature film set during unified Korea’s resistance to Japanese colonisation in the 1900s.

Arirang, a South Korean film, which opens simultaneously in the North and South next week, will be the first feature from Seoul to be shown on both sides of the Korean border, according to the South’s Korean Herald.

Since war separated the two neighbours in the 1950s, there has been little chance for Koreans from either side to watch productions by the other.

“It will be good for reconciliation if we can encourage more cultural exchanges like this,” said the film’s director Lee Doo-yong.

But Arirang may fare very differently in the two Koreas, when it opens on 23 May. The countries are reported to have deeply divergent tastes in films.

Arirang tells the story of a young Korean man who loses his sanity after being tortured by the Japanese.

The theme is likely to be popular in the North, whose founder and first president, Kim Il-sung, was the leader of pro-independence guerrillas.

His son, current leader Kim Jong-il, has also criticised Tokyo for its repressive regime during the Korean occupation.

Most North Korean films tell traditional folk stories or advertise the communist government’s regime, so Arirang may well prove a refreshing alternative for audiences in Pyongyang.

“The film shows the happiness and sadness of life,” Mr Lee told the Associated Press news agency. “North Koreans seemed to be very moved by it.”

But south of the border, audiences have a tendency to shun traditional movies, according to the Korean Herald.

The fact that the sequel to the Matrix opens on the same day as Arirang may also lower attendance figures in South Korea.

Past films made in the North have not fared well in Seoul.

In July 2000, a Northern film called Pulgasari – a version of Godzilla – was seen by an audience of less than 1,000 South Koreans, according to the Korean Herald.

Kidnapped director

Pulgasari was one of the many films produced by Shin Sang-ok, a South Korean film director who was kidnapped with his wife in the 1970s to produce films for the North’s leader, Kim Jong-il.

Mr Kim is a famed film enthusiast, and is said to have a library of 20,000 Hollywood movies.

He has even opened a film school in impoverished Pyongyang.

Arirang’s director, Mr Lee, said he was not too concerned about being kidnapped when he visited the North last year to gain approval for his film’s showing.

“But I must admit I was a little nervous when entering Pyongyang,” he told the Associated Press.

Posted in Art, Civil society, Film | Comments Closed

North Korean defectors find Christianity

Tuesday, February 11th, 2003

BBC
Caroline Gluck
2/11/2003

The Sunday service at Doorae church in southern Seoul is like many others across the country – except that the congregation includes about 20 North Korean defectors.

Many of them, like 28-year-old Kim Song Gun, turned to Christianity when they encountered missionaries helping North Koreans on the Chinese border.

Kim Song Gun left his home in the northern province of Chongjin six years ago, fearing he would die from starvation.

“I think it’s almost impossible to lead a normal Christian life in North Korea. I’ve heard rumours there are underground churches, but I haven’t seen anyone who has been there,” said Kim Song Gun.

“Mentally, Christianity helps a lot. When you are going through a lot of hardships, religion is the only thing you can rely on,” he said.

Perilous trip

Other members of the congregation agree.

During Sunday’s service, North Korean mother Park Young Ae and her 14-year-old son went to the altar to sing a song that has become popular with North Korean defectors – telling the story of a sparrow’s perilous journey.

After four years apart, they were only reunited a few days earlier.

Park Young Ae said she had been on a business trip to China – but had been unable to return to the North and her family for reasons she said were too complicated to go into.

“A lot of the time, I was trying to escape, and people were trying to capture me. At one point I was also jailed. I went through a lot of pain, but I finally made it to South Korea,” she said.

“When I received orientation in South Korea, I learnt about Christianity and spiritually I’m now very reliant on being a Christian. It gives me inner power.”

Spiritual help

After the service ends, Park Young Ae – who now runs a restaurant – is able to earn some extra money selling North Korean style sausages to members of the congregation.

The Church can help people like her – not only financially but more importantly by providing them with a sense of community.

“North Koreans are looked down upon and marginalised socially,” said Douglas Shin, a Korean-American missionary and activist working with North Korean immigrants.

“So when they need some kind of consolation, they turn to church,” he said.

But for 24-year-old Kim Kun Il, the Church is about to become his vocation.

Kim Kun Il, who left the North after his father died from hunger six years ago, is now studying to be a reverend at a missionary school.

He said he goes to church for the mental help, not the material help, the church groups give.

“Money and food has its limitations. Once you are back to a normal state, it doesn’t really help,” he said.

Douglas Shin agreed. “When you recover from malnutrition or absolute starvation, the human body adapts very quickly. So one or two meals in freedom will be enough to get you on your own feet,” he said.

“But it takes a long time and a lot of effort to be revived spiritually. They need some kind of comfort, mental and spiritual.”

“This is our role, the Christian role, to save the people from drowning. It’s almost like Noah’s Ark,” he said.

Posted in Civil society, Emigration, Religion | Comments Closed

North Korea Takes Aim at Bond

Saturday, December 14th, 2002

According to the BBC, the North Korean government is not happy with the country’s portrayal in the latest James Bond film, Die Another Day. To begin with, the film portrays the country as “backward” (showing cows till fields). In addition, Mr. Bond finds time for sex in a Buddhist temple. Finally, and least subtly, the film begins with Mr. Bond being captured and tortured by the DPRK army.

According to the report,

“North Korea has called on the United States to stop showing Die Another Day saying it is “insulting the Korean nation”. The film – starring Pierce Brosnan and Halle Berry – “clearly proves” the US is “the root cause of all disasters and misfortune of the Korean nation” and is “an empire of evil”, according to the Secretariat of the Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of the Fatherland.

The most interesting insight here is that they do not appear to understand that the US government does not have the power to “stop showing” the film.

Continue reading the whole Story here

Posted in Film | Comments Closed

The game of their lives

Tuesday, October 15th, 2002

From the BBC:
10/15/2002

Seven survivors of the North Korean World Cup team that beat Italy in 1966 have arrived in England to revisit the scene of their triumph.

Against all the odds, the North Koreans reached the quarter-finals having been adopted by the people of Middlesbrough where they played their group matches.

North Korea arrived in England unknown and unwanted.

In 1966 there was only one place in the finals for the whole of Africa, Asia and Oceania.

Africa boycotted the finals because there was no guaranteed place, leaving Australia and North Korea to contest the spot.

With no diplomatic ties, the qualifiers took place in Cambodia, with North Korea overwhelming Australia 6-1 and 3-1.

Horror then admiration

The British Government was aghast and even considered not issuing visas to the winners, but relented.

The Koreans lost their opening game 3-0 to a hard Russian side, but earned the love and respect of the people of Middlesbrough.

Those fans were even more delighted with a 1-1 draw against Chile.

The deciding match was against the might of Italy.

Five minutes before half-time, a ball headed out of defence found Pak Doo-ik, who took the ball off Giovanni Rivera and hit a powerful shot to beat the goalkeeper.

Sensational games

It was the biggest upset in 36 years of the World Cup.

More sensations followed when North Korea took a 3-0 lead against Portugal in the quarter-finals.

But in the end their naivety let them down, and Eusebio scored four in their 5-3 defeat.

North Korea went home as heroes, the Italians were pelted with rotten tomatoes, and the impact of that defeat still survives.

Posted in Football (soccer) | Comments Closed

North Koreans in South for games

Monday, September 23rd, 2002

BBC
9/23/2002

A plane carrying 173 athletes and officials from North Korea has touched down in the South Korean city of Busan ahead of the Asian Games, due to begin on Sunday.

The group is the first part of the largest delegation ever sent by the Communist North to the South.

It is the first time that Northern athletes have attended an international sporting event in the South since the peninsula’s division in 1945.

In another first, the North Korean flag was publicly flown on Southern soil when it was hoisted at the Games village.

But the athletes and officials leaving the plane at the airport were met by the blue and white neutral flag of a united Korean peninsula.

“Thanks for welcoming us,” said one of the delegates as they headed off to the athletes’ village without giving a news conference.

Warming up

Altogether, nearly 700 northerners are due to arrive for the Games.

A second plane carrying 152 people is due to arrive on Friday while a ferry will bring 355 officials and supporters into the port city on Saturday.

Of the 419 gold medals up for grabs at the Games, the North is expected to bag about 10, having won seven at the last Asian Games, held in Thailand in 1998.

With the two Korean states still technically at war, the North has until now shunned all big sporting events hosted by its rival, including the 1986 Asian Games, the 1988 Olympic Games and the 2002 World Cup football finals.

But recent weeks have seen a flurry of both diplomatic and sporting activity as work on a cross-border railway began, families were reunited and the two states held a friendly football match in Seoul.

Posted in Civil society, Football (soccer), Sports | Comments Closed

Emotional Korean relatives reunited

Friday, September 13th, 2002

BBC
9/13/2002

There have been emotional scenes in North Korea as hundreds of relatives from South Korea were reunited with 100 long-lost relatives from the North.

Many of the participants, mostly aged in their 60s and 70s, were speechless as they embraced their brothers, sisters, parents and children for the first time in more than 50 years.

The group of 455 South Koreans arrived by ship for the three-day reunion, which is taking place at the picturesque Kumgang Mountain (Diamond Mountain) resort on the northern side of the border.

This is the fifth reunion to take place since the meetings were agreed upon at an historic inter-Korean summit in 2000.

Millions of Koreans were separated after the 1950-1953 Korean War. About eight million South Koreans have relatives living in the North.

Time running out

The two counties remain technically at war, and it is impossible for civilians to telephone or send a letter to relatives on the other side of their heavily-fortified border

The oldest participant in this latest wave of reunions is a 94-year-old man who is set to see his son for the first time in more than 50 years.

Many Koreans wept as they were introduced to relatives that they could barely recognise after so many years.

South Korean sisters Lee Jin-ock and Lee Jin-geum broke down when they saw their father, Lee Kyoo-yom, aged 82.

The sisters have held an annual memorial service for him for the past 30 years, having given him up for dead after he went out shopping and never returned on the outbreak of war in 1950.

Kim Kun-rye, a 67-year-old South Korean grandmother, was blind but could still recognise the voice of her 74-year-old brother after five decades.

“It’s him! I can’t see him, but he still has the same voice,” the blind sister said, hugging her brother and weeping.

Selection lottery

The reunions are an emotional issue for many Koreans as the divided family members are beginning to die of old age or illness.

Red Cross officials in Seoul said three family-reunion applicants had to abandon this trip because of health problems.

South Korea held a lottery among 120,000 candidates to select its family members. It is not known how the North selected its participants.

The reunions are strictly controlled and participants are not allowed to visit their home towns.

Last week Red Cross officials from both sides agreed to set up a permanent reunion centre at the mountain resort.

Another group of 100 South Koreans will leave for Mount Kumgang on Monday to meet relatives.

The latest flurry of reunions is part of a recent thawing of relations between the two countries as the impoverished North reaches out internationally for much needed aid.

Posted in Civil society, Communications, International/Korean Red Cross, Mt. Kumgang Tourist Special Zone | Comments Closed

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