South Korea seeks talks with North to defuse tension
South Korea seeks talks with North to defuse tension
SEOUL (Agencies): South Korea yesterday braced itself for possible attacks by North Korea but said it would seek to defuse rising tensions after a high-level Pyongyang official sought asylum at Seoul's Beijing embassy.
North Korea, meanwhile, hinted yesterday it could accept the defection of top official Hwang Jang-yop to the South, according to an official Pyongyang report monitored in Tokyo.
But a North Korean foreign ministry spokesman, quoted by the Korean Central News Agency, warned of retaliation if it found the 74 year-old ideologue had been kidnapped.
"Our stand is simple and clear," the spokesman was quoted as saying. "If he was kidnapped, we cannot tolerate and we will take decisive countermeasures.
"If he sought asylum, it means that he is a renegade and he is dismissed."
The spokesman added that North Korea had asked China to investigate the matter.
Hwang, while returning from Tokyo to Pyongyang last Wednesday, went to South Korea's embassy in Beijing with an aide and requested asylum. He has since remained inside the embassy's consular department under tight security.
Another prominent defector, Li Il-nam, a nephew of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il's ex-wife, remained in a coma after being critically wounded at the weekend by suspected North Korean agents near Seoul.
Security around South Korea's ports, airports and other public places has been beefed up and 10,000 police and soldiers searched for the two suspected North Korean agents who shot Li.
Seoul Foreign Minister Yoo Chong-ha said problems stemming from Hwang's defection were just the start of headaches for Seoul because of a crisis in the North.
"I believe the North Korean regime's crisis will deepen as time passes because there's no likelihood of improvement in its economic hardship and food shortages, and signs of laxity in its social order," Yoo told a meeting of South Korean diplomats.
South Korea's security-related ministers on Sunday agreed that a desperate North Korea could resort to guerrilla attacks after Hwang, a top adviser to North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, sought asylum last Wednesday.
Dour warnings from North Korean officials in Beijing of the consequences of any attempt to move Hwang to the South gave a hint of Pyongyang's willingness to retaliate.
"If they make him go to Seoul, I think there will be war," said one North Korean official who declined to be identified.
"We want him back," he said, in an echo of earlier threats to use force if Hwang was compelled to go to Seoul.
South Korean diplomats and Chinese police guarding the mission brought in extra blankets and mattresses in a sign they expected a lengthy stand-off over Hwang.
However, dozens of North Korean officials disappeared yesterday afternoon from outside the building where they have kept a round-the-clock vigil since Hwang turned up in a taxi with an aide last Wednesday.
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