LOC12:41
09:41 GMT
TOKYO, July 1 (KUNA) -- North Korea has strengthened its border controls to
try to stem the steady stream of defections to South Korea, Seoul's Yonhap
News Agency reported Friday.
The latest crackdown came after nine North Koreans crossed the tense
western sea border into South Korea aboard two engineless boats in June, the
Good Friends said in its newsletter, according to the report.
The North bans small motorless boats on its western coast and thoroughly
vets people before issuing permits to go to sea. It also stopped issuing a
travel permit that made it nearly impossible for inlanders to travel to border
areas - crossing points for defectors, the aid group said.
However, the flow of North Korean defectors continues amid chronic food
shortages and harsh political oppression. South Korea is now home to more than
21,000 North Korean defectors and defections are a constant irritant to
inter-Korean relations. South Korea has suggested that it will not return the
nine North Korean defectors to the North despite Pyongyang warning of further
damage to inter-Korean relations. Seoul has a longstanding policy to accept
any North Korean defectors who want to live in the South, and repatriate any
North Koreans who stray into the South if they want to return.
The two Koreas are still technically at war as the 1950-53 Korean War ended
in a truce, not a peace treaty. (end)
mk.hs
KUNA 011241 Jul 11NNNN