- South Korean sources today state that the Republic of
Korea's (ROK) government, ostensibly via the nation's Red Cross, forced
a North Korean defector back to the North via the "truce village"
of Panmunjeom.
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- Identified only by his family name, Ri, was captured
"by a South Korean Navy patrol boat after his fishing boat drifted
into southern territorial waters off the East Sea last week."
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- Such a repatriative move marks a troubling lack of interest
in "human intelligence" by the ROK's government, led by former
human rights attorney Roh Moo-hyung and Intelligence services, widely mocked
now by the conservative Hanaro (Grand National) Party.
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- President Roh has been roundly criticized by the majority
opposition party for installing several key aides with "pro-Pyongyang"
viewpoints, to the South's spy services. The appointment of Ko Young Koo
to chief of the ROK's National Intelligence Service (NIS) was voted down
15-0 in Parliament, by a mix of liberal and conservative Representatives
of the South's Intelligence panel. Newly-elected President Roh chose to
veto the recommendation.
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- One of Mr. Ko's first recommendations was, that the South's
Intelligence service should no longer be in the business of catching North
Korean spies; such, he recommended, is to be the province of the local
police departments. Instead, Ko recommended that the NIS should concentrate
and spend its resources and manpower on instances of "economic espionage."...
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- As the world has just learned, a lone individual, arrested
recently in Tikrit, Iraq, was responsible for divulging the whereabouts
of Saddam Hussein--finally, after eight months of fruitless efforts by
both satellite and the best special forces money can buy.
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- Given the secrecy of the closed Pyongyang regime, turning
away a North Korean defector--even one in a crude fishing boat--is a strategic
blunder; sending him back to his homeland, to the man's certain execution
is an act which belies President Roh Moo-hyun's background as a "human
rights" champion.
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- http://www.sianews.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=1463
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