Elderly North Korean spies seek repatriation to Pyongyang from Seoul
The group, aged 80 to 96, served lengthy sentences while maintaining allegiance to communist ideology after being captured during the Korean War.
Ahn Hak-sop, now 95, endured over 40 years imprisonment before his release, according to official records.
A Seoul-based civic group submitted the repatriation appeal, arguing the men qualify as prisoners of war under Geneva Convention protections.
'We have received an official request for repatriation,' confirmed a Unification Ministry official handling inter-Korean affairs.
Authorities are evaluating potential solutions as more similar cases may emerge among surviving former convicts.
The appeal follows President Lee Jae Myung's June election victory and subsequent pledges to rebuild relations with nuclear-armed North Korea.
Recent confidence-building measures include removing border propaganda loudspeakers that Pyongyang long condemned as psychological warfare.
President Lee recently affirmed plans to 'respect' North Korea's political system while establishing military trust mechanisms.
Kim Yo Jong, sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, dismissed Seoul's overtures days earlier, stating Pyongyang lacks interest in reconciliation.
The 2000 repatriation of 63 unconverted prisoners through Panmunjom remains the sole precedent for such transfers during brief diplomatic thaw. - AFP
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Free Malaysia Today
4 hours ago
- Free Malaysia Today
Local vote in Libya off to tense start after security incidents
Polling took place in around 50 municipalities, including the capital Tripoli, today. (AFP pic) TRIPOLI : Hundreds of thousands of Libyans are voting today in the second phase of municipal elections, held under tight security after incidents and irregularities forced delays at several stations. The elections are seen as a test of democracy in a nation still plagued by division and instability after years of unrest following the Nato-backed uprising that toppled long-time leader Muammar Gaddafi in 2011. Polling took place in around 50 municipalities, including the capital Tripoli, with some stations opening at 9am to serve 380,000 registered voters. A heavy police presence was deployed in the west by the Tripoli-based unity government. Since Gaddafi's overthrow, Libya has been split between the UN-recognised government in Tripoli, led by prime minister Abdulhamid Dbeibah, and its eastern rival, backed by military strongman Khalifa Haftar. After a first phase in November across 58 cities, the vote was initially scheduled in 63 municipalities – 41 in the west, 13 in the east and nine in the south. The high national election commission (HNEC) had to suspend elections in 11 municipalities, mostly in Haftar-controlled areas, due to 'irregularities' including unexplained halts in voter card distribution. Today, the commission also announced the postponement to Aug 23 of elections in seven more municipalities, mostly in the west, including four in the Zawiyah area, as well as Surman and Sabratha. The delays followed yesterday arson attacks that destroyed electoral materials in Zawiyah and Sahel al-Gharbi, 45km from Tripoli. And on Tuesday, the electoral body said a group of armed men attacked its headquarters in Zliten, some 160km east of Tripoli. It made no mention of any casualties, although the UN Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) said there were some injuries. 'These attacks, on the eve of polling day, threaten the conduct of the ongoing municipal elections and the broader democratic aspirations of the Libyan people,' UNSMIL said. 'Such criminal acts represent another grave assault on the electoral process and a blatant attempt to disenfranchise citizens, undermine their right to choose their representatives, and obstruct the democratic process,' the mission added. For Tripoli resident Esraa Abdelmomen, 36, a mother of three, the municipal elections were 'very important' because they determine who would manage the government-allocated funds. Following Gaddafi's fall in 2011, Libya held its first free elections in 2012 to select 200 members of the General National Congress. That was followed by nationwide municipal elections in 2013 and legislative polls in June 2014, which were marred by renewed violence and very low turnout. In some western municipalities, residents are voting in a local election for the first time since 2014.
Free Malaysia Today
5 hours ago
- Free Malaysia Today
Iraq starts work on mass grave thought to contain thousands of IS victims
Exhuming the bodies from Khasfa is particularly difficult as underground sulphur water makes the earth very porous. (AFP pic) BAGHDAD : Iraqi authorities have begun excavating the site of a mass grave believed to contain thousands of victims of the Islamic State (IS) group near Mosul city, the project's director told AFP today. The first phase, which was launched on Aug 10, includes surface-level excavation at the Khasfa site, director Ahmed al-Assadi said. An AFP correspondent visiting the site in northern Iraq today said the team unearthed human skulls buried in the sand. Khasfa is located near Mosul, where IS had established the capital of their self-declared 'caliphate' before being defeated in Iraq in late 2017. Assadi said that there were no precise figures for the numbers of victims buried there – one of dozens of mass graves IS left behind in Iraq – but a UN report from 2018 said Khasfa was likely the country's largest. Official estimates put the number of bodies buried at the site at at least 4,000, with the possibility of thousands more. The project director said the victims buried there include 'soldiers executed by IS', members of the Yazidi minority and residents of Mosul. Exhuming the bodies from Khasfa is particularly difficult, Assadi said, as underground sulphur water makes the earth very porous. The water may have also eroded the human remains, complicating DNA identification of victims, he added. Assadi said further studies will be required before his team can dig deeper and exhume bodies at the site – a sinkhole about 150m deep and 110m wide. Iraqi authorities said it was the site of 'one of the worst massacres' committed by IS extremists, executing 280 in a single day in 2016, many of them interior ministry employees. In a lightning advance that began in 2014, IS had seized large swathes Iraq and neighbouring Syria, enforcing a strict interpretation of Islamic law and committing widespread abuses. The United Nations estimates the extremists left behind more than 200 mass graves which might contain as many as 12,000 bodies. In addition to IS-era mass graves, Iraqi authorities continue to unearth such sites dating to the rule of Saddam Hussein, who was toppled in a US-led invasion in 2003.
Herald Malaysia
5 hours ago
- Herald Malaysia
First lay synod in India's Eastern Church seeks greater represention
First lay synod in India's Eastern Church seeks greater represention Some 300 specially invited delegates also resolved to pursue the formation of a 'Church Synod' in the Syro-Malabar Church Aug 19, 2025 Delegates participating in a structured group discussion during the Laity Synod on Aug. 15-16 at the Renewal Center in Kaloor, Ernakulam district, in the southern Indian state of Kerala. (Photo: Facebook) A lay group in an Eastern Rite archdiocese has demanded greater representation of lay people in the India-based Church's decision-making bodies after concluding its first-ever 'Almaya Synod' (lay synod). Around 300 invited delegates from the Eastern rite Syro-Malabar Church's dioceses in southern Kerala state participated in the synod on Aug. 15-16 at the Renewal Center in Kaloor, Ernakulam district. Almaya Munnettam (meaning 'lay forward'), a group of lay Catholics in the Archdiocese of Ernakulam-Angamaly, which organized the event, stated that the extraordinary synod was 'unprecedented in the history of the Catholic Church" as it preceded the Synod of Bishops, the top decision-making body of the Church. 'It imbibed the spirit of the Vatican document on 'Synod on Synodality 2024' which calls for encouraging voices of the laity, including women and marginalized groups, among others, to be heard in matters within the Church,' it claimed. In a statement on Aug. 16, Almaya Munnettam said the special synod resolved to seek 50 percent representation for laity, with women forming up to 40 percent of it, in every decision-making body of the Church. 'Their representation should be through election, and there shall be no nominee from a bishop,' the statement demanded, adding this would make the Church's functioning 'more transparent and vibrant.' The synod of laity also resolved to pursue the formation of a 'Church Synod' in the Syro-Malabar Church, involving laity, priests, religious, and other stakeholders. Currently, 'in the Syro-Malabar Church, there is only a Synod of Bishops, which takes all the decisions for the laity, priests and religious, which is not good for a Synodal Church,' the statement noted. The lay group also sought the formation of diocesan synods, which would involve all stakeholders in a diocese, to decentralize the Church's functioning at the local level. It also called for structural changes in the Church, including the introduction of manuals and other guiding rules and regulations to accommodate everyone as part of the same Church. The laity synod has also appointed a 16-member committee of lay persons to conduct a thorough study on the structural changes necessary to improve the Church's functioning. 'The findings of the committee will be discussed in detail in the next laity synod,' says Riju Kanjookaran, the spokesperson of the Almaya Munnettam. Kanjookaran told UCA News on Aug. 18 that this was the first such synod of lay people, and the resolutions passed will be handed over to the bishops. Some 52 bishops from the Syro-Malabar Church are congregating at Mount St. Thomas, its headquarters, for the 33rd Synod of Bishops on Aug. 18-29. Kanjookaran said there was confusion among some people that the laity synod was a rebel synod opposing the Bishops' Synod, which was not right. 'Such a perception is wrong. The laity synod was held based on the Vatican document on Synod on Synodality 2024 to fulfill the vision of late Pope Francis,' he clarified. The Syro-Malabar Church, with nearly five million Catholics, is the second-largest among the 23 Oriental Churches in full communion with the Vatican. The Synod of Bishops has so far not responded to the first-ever synod of lay people in the
