S. Korean activist arrested after trip to N. Korea

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Updated: Thu, 05 Jul 2012 13:32:50 GMT | By Agence France-Presse

S. Korean activist arrested after trip to N. Korea

A left-wing South Korean activist was detained Thursday when he returned home from an illegal trip to North Korea and a meeting with its ceremonial head of state, police said.

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S. Korean activist arrested after trip to N. Korea

Security officials held Ro Su-Hui soon after he walked across the border at the truce village of Panmunjom. Seoul says he faces stern punishment for his trip, during which he praised Pyongyang's rulers.

Ro, 68, went to Pyongyang on March 24 without Seoul government approval for a memorial service marking the 100th day since the death of longtime ruler Kim Jong-Il.

More than 1,000 conservative activists rallied with anti-Pyongyang placards at Paju near a border bridge leading to Panmunjom, demanding he be punished.

They torched a North Korean flag and an effigy of current leader Kim Jong-Un along with his portraits.

"Expel traitor Ro Su-Hui to North Korea!" one placard read.

Pictures provided by the South's unification ministry showed about 300 North Koreans waving flags on the northern side of Panmunjom as Ro, wearing a grey suit, crossed the frontier watched by border guards.

The North Koreans gave him "a hearty send-off", shouting slogans such as "Down with the (President) Lee Myung-Bak group of traitors!", according to the North's official news agency KCNA.

He was taken to a police station at Paju, police said.

The detention came hours after police raided Ro's home and office in Seoul to seize computer hard discs and documents.

He could face up to 10 years in prison under a tough security law that penalises pro-Pyongyang activity and bans citizens from going to the North without approval.

Ro is a member of pro-Pyongyang group the North and South headquarters of the Pan-national Alliance for Korea's Reunification, which said the visit was justified.

It accused Seoul of trying to use his return to eliminate "progressive pro-reform forces" before presidential elections in December, and called Ro's visit "a token of due courtesy" for North Koreans during the mourning period for the late leader.

In an interview Tuesday with the North's official news agency, Ro praised Jong-Un for "pursuing politics of love for the people and posterity".

"In the North the people are regarded as Heaven, children as kings and the single-minded unity is stronger than nuclear weapons," he said.

He met the ceremonial head of state Kim Yong-Nam in Pyongyang Wednesday.

Seoul did not send any representatives to Kim's funeral and approved a trip only by two private delegations, a decision strongly criticised by Pyongyang.

The North has ratcheted up hostility towards Seoul for perceived insults to the late leader during the mourning period and other alleged slights.

Other activists visiting the North have been charged or jailed on return. Han Sang-Ryol, a pastor, was sentenced to three years in jail last year for an unauthorised trip in 2010.

http://news.xin.msn.com/en/regional/s-korean-activist-arrested-after-trip-to-n-korea-1

South Korea Detains Activist Who Visited North

By CHOE SANG-HUN

Published: July 5, 2012

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SEOUL, South Korea — A South Korean activist was arrested on Thursday after he returned from an unauthorized visit to North Korea, where he called for the reunification of the two Koreas and bitterly criticized President Lee Myung-bak of South Korea for his hard-line North Korea policy.

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The activist, Ro Su-hui, 68, entered North Korea on March 24 through China to attend the 100-day anniversary of the death of Kim Jong-il, the North Korean leader, which he called “the greatest sorrow of the Korean nation,” according to the North’s state-run media. But he chose to return home by walking across the heavily guarded demilitarized zone separating the two Koreas.

Defying South Korea’s anti-communist National Security Law, seven other activists since the late 1980s have done that in a gesture they said symbolized their wish for Korean unification. The law bans sympathizing with North Korea and punishes unauthorized visits like Mr. Ro’s with up to 10 years in prison.

Such trips trigger raw emotions in South Korea, where the desire for reunification with North Korea coexists with a deep hatred and fear of the totalitarian dictatorship in Pyongyang. On Thursday, hundreds of North Koreans waved the “Korea is one” flag, which shows a blue undivided Korean Peninsula on a white background, as they saw off Mr. Ro at the border, according to photographs South Korean media outlets filed from the border. With the flag in one hand and a bouquet of flowers in the other, Mr. Ro waved back.

As soon as he stepped across the low concrete curb that forms the demarcation line bisecting the border village of Panmunjom north of Seoul, South Korean officials arrested him and bound him up in white ropes.

“As he crossed the border, he shouted, ‘Hurrahs for the reunification of the fatherland! Koreans together!’ ” North Korea’s state-run television Central Broadcasting Station reported. “As the plain-clothed hooligans whisked him away, roars of anger rocked Panmunjom.”

North Korea, calling Mr. Ro’s arrest a “fascist” act and a “antireunification racket,” threatened unspecified retaliation.

On the highway near the border, hundreds of conservative South Koreans rallied to condemn Mr. Ro as a “commie.” They burned effigies of him and Kim Jong-un, the current North Korean leader and a son of Kim Jong-il. They also displayed a coffin that they said should contain Mr. Ro.

The protesters briefly engaged in a shoving match with riot police officers when they were blocked from pushing through a barricade to fight with a separate group of pro-unification activists gathered several hundreds yards away to welcome Mr. Ro. The activists called for the repeal of the National Security Law.

Mr. Ro’s visit provided a boost to Pyongyang’s propaganda campaign against the Lee government in Seoul. Under Mr. Lee, who has cut off aid until North Korea gives up its nuclear weapons program, inter-Korean ties chilled dramatically.

While in North Korea for 104 days, Mr. Ro, a member of a South Korean civic group that champions Korean unification, visited the mausoleum where the bodies of Kim Jong-il and his father, North Korea’s founding president, Kim Il-sung, are displayed. He said North Koreans were following Kim Jong-un, the new leader, like a “parent,” according to North Korean media.

Meanwhile, he said, Seoul’s decision not to send a government delegation of condolence to Kim Jong-il’s funeral was “an antihumanity act of barbarity,” and called for punishing the Lee government.

His trip came at a particularly sensitive time in South Korea. At the National Assembly, two progressive national legislators faced pressure to give up their seats for their involvement in an alleged vote-rigging scheme but also for being “jongbuk,” or blindingly following North Korea, and for opposing the singing of the national anthem during state events.

In the run-up to the presidential election in December, the conservative governing party has accused the liberal opposition of harboring pro-North Korean sympathizers within its ranks. The opposition parties have called the offensive an election-year “witch hunt.”

The first South Korean unification activist to cross the border was Lim Su-Kyung, who visited North Korea in 1989 and was jailed after returning home. She won a parliamentary seat in April and was affiliated with the main opposition party.

Ms. Lim helped fuel the conservatives’ ideological offensive when it was reported last month that she called defectors from North Korea “traitors.” She later apologized, saying she didn’t mean it.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/06/world/asia/south-korea-detains-activist-who-visited-north.html