SPOTLIGHT 25/08/13 Elderly spies for N. Korea appeal to be sent there: Seoul official

[성기화 요셉]

Six ex-prisoners, now aged between 80 and 96, refuse to renounce their communist beliefs

This picture, taken on Aug. 13, shows Ahn Hak-sop, a former prisoner of conscience convicted of spying for North Korea, arriving to attend a press conference in Seoul. (Photo: AFP)

By AFP, Seoul

Published: August 19, 2025 05:14 AM GMT

Updated: August 19, 2025 05:45 AM GMT

Six elderly men who served lengthy jail terms for spying against South Korea have asked to be sent to the North, a Seoul unification official said on Aug. 19, decades after their release.

The six men -- now aged between 80 and 96 -- served decades in prison while refusing to renounce their communist beliefs.

North and South Korea remain technically at war as the 1950-53 Korean War ended in an armistice, not a peace treaty.

One former prisoner, Ahn Hak-sop, 95, was arrested during the Korean War and jailed for more than 40 years before being released.

A civic group representing the six men said it had asked the government to allow them to be sent to the North on Aug. 20, arguing they should be treated as "prisoners of war" whose request should be respected under the Geneva Convention.

"We have received an official request for repatriation," an official at the Unification Ministry in charge of inter-Korean affairs said without elaborating.

"We are looking at various ways to address this," they added.

The official said more former convicts in similar positions were expected to demand repatriation, adding the government had no precise figure for how many of them remain alive.

The request comes after South Korea's new President Lee Jae Myung, elected in a June snap poll, vowed to improve ties with the nuclear-armed North and resume dialogue.

Lee's administration has made a series of Pyongyang-friendly gestures, including removing propaganda loudspeakers along the border, which have long irritated the North.

Lee pledged on Aug. 15 to "respect" North Korea's political system and build "military trust."

A day earlier, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un's sister, Kim Yo Jong, said the North has "no will to improve relations" with the South.

In 2000, South Korea repatriated 63 "unconverted" former prisoners through the border truce village of Panmunjom during a period of rapprochement -- the first and only such event to date.