(LEAD) 6 surviving ex-N. Korean soldiers, spies in S. Korea seek repatriation

(ATTN: UPDATES with more info in paras 8-10)

SEOUL, Aug. 19 (Yonhap) -- Six former North Korean soldiers and spies who were jailed in South Korea for refusing to renounce their socialist beliefs have asked the Seoul government to repatriate them to the North, officials said Tuesday.

Yang Won-jin, 96, Ahn Hak-sop, 95, and four others have recently submitted the formal request to the unification ministry, seeking to return to North Korea, a ministry official said.

Known as "unconverted" long-term prisoners, they are former North Korean soldiers and spies who were arrested in the South before and after the 1950-53 Korean War, an ideologically driven conflict that left the Korean Peninsula divided into the communist North and the democratic South.

Many others have died of old age or illness, still wishing to return home.

They served decades in South Korean prisons for refusing to denounce their socialist beliefs at a time when South Korea was still under threat from communist ideology and have since remained unconverted.

Holding a press conference the previous day, a civic group advocating Ahn's repatriation argued that he should be sent home under the Geneva Conventions mandating humanitarian treatment in war and called on the government to repatriate him across the inter-Korean border.

Ahn has also announced plans to cross the border via the inter-Korean truce village of Panmunjom at 10 a.m. Wednesday and has requested support from the government and the United Nations Command for procedures, including notification and transfer to North Korea.

A government official said that the government is "well aware of the demands" from the unconverted long-term prisoners, but no decision has been made on whether to seek their repatriation.

A unification ministry official separately said repatriating Ahn on Wednesday, as requested, will be difficult because time is needed for necessary procedures, such as consultations with the North, but the government will review the request.

"Various measures are currently under review on the issue from a humanitarian perspective," the official said.

Amid an inter-Korean conciliatory mood under the former President Kim Dae-jung's administration, South Korea repatriated 63 of them to North Korea in late 2000 via Panmunjom. But no further such repatriation has taken place since.

pbr@yna.co.kr
(END)