E-MAIL THIS LINK
To: 

N Korea boycotts talks
Not those talks, other talks.
NORTH Korea has boycotted Cabinet-level talks with South Korea scheduled to start in Seoul today. It is angry over the defection of hundreds of "human scum" North Koreans to the South last week.

Pyongyang described the mass defection as an act of "kidnapping and terrorism committed by South Korean authorities in broad daylight". The South Korean ministry of unification said in a statement that it deeply regretted Pyongyang's decision not to attend the talks. "We urge the North side to come to their senses the talks at the earliest possible date and discuss and resolve pending issues of the two sides so as to continue pushing forward inter-Korean ties," it said.

The two Koreas have been at odds over the defection and Seoul's earlier refusal to let pro-unification harebrained activists visit Pyongyang for the 10th anniversary of the death of the North's founding leader, Kim Il-Sung on July 8. North Korea also scrapped maritime and military talks with South Korea in retaliation.
Quite a hissy fit it was, too.
South Korea has played down the significance of the North Korean boycott, saying Seoul remains committed to engagement with the communist state, which is in dire need of assistance to revive its moribund economy.

Two South Korean chartered flights carried more than 450 North Korean refugees to South Korea last week. They had previously been holed up in an unidentified South-East Asian nation after escaping their impoverished homeland. It was the biggest mass defection to South Korea since the end of the 1950-53 Korean War. Activists engaged in the defection said they came from Vietnam. Hanoi has declined to comment on the defection. South Korea's unification ministry said it planned to buy 100,000 tonnes of rice from Vietnam as part of a 400,000-tonne food aid for North Korea.
South Koreans are getting better at this bribery thing.
South Korean officials said the North Koreans had arrived in the country in small groups separately in the past few years and their accumulated number reached a level that the host country could no longer sustain, compelling Seoul to bring them here.

Despite the angry reaction from the North, South Korean officials said there would be no change in Seoul's policy to accept any North Koreans who are staying in foreign countries while waiting for the chance to come here. Up to 300,000 North Koreans are said to be in hiding in China according to some estimates and hundreds are believed to be gathering in various South-East Asian nations. Most are awaiting a chance to reach the South.
Posted by: Steve White 2004-08-03
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=39589