A South Korean pro-unification activist was arrested yesterday when he crossed the tense border from North Korea after visiting Pyongyang without Seoul’s permission, an official said.
Reverend Han Sang-tyol, who traveled to the North on June 12 on an unauthorized trip, walked back across the border at 3pm, the South’s unification ministry said.
“He was arrested soon after he crossed the border and taken to a place in Seoul for questioning,” a ministry spokeswoman said.
Han returned home through the village of Panmunjom, where an armistice was signed to end the Korean War in 1953, to underline his wish for reconciliation.
About 200 North Koreans stood on their side of the village as Han — dressed in a traditional white overcoat and holding a flag depicting the Korean Peninsula, a symbol for reunification used by both countries — crossed the border, South Korea’s Yonhap news agency said.
They “warmly sent off” the pastor, waving bouquets and chanting slogans such as “national reunification,” the North’s official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said.
“Plain-clothes agents handcuffed him and hastily took him away,” it said.
More than 1,000 riot police were on guard near a military-controlled bridge leading to Panmunjom as a similar number of conservative activists from the South rallied, torching two North Korean flags and calling for Han’s arrest.
About 70 liberal activists held a separate rally near the bridge to welcome Han.
His arrest could deepen inter-Korean tensions, with North Korea having urged the South to stop what it called the “fascist suppression” of the pastor.
In a farewell ceremony earlier in Pyongyang, Han, quoted by KCNA, said: “I do not feel lonely and fearful as I am joined by fellow countrymen in the North and the South and abroad.
“I will wait and wait for our reunion with tears of joy,” he said.
Describing the pastor as a “reunification champion,” KCNA said top North Korean officials in charge of inter-Korean affairs took part in the ceremony.
KCNA said Han had met on Thursday with the North’s No. 2, Kim Yong-nam, president of the Presidium of the North’s parliament, the Supreme People’s Assembly.
During his visit marking the 10th anniversary of the 2000 summit, he gave speeches praising North Korean leader Kim Jong-il and denouncing South Korean President Lee Myung-bak.
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