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N. Korea sends mixed signals as South returns bodies
Calls Seoul 'butchers,' will listen to peace proposal
December 30, 1996
Web posted at: 10:00 a.m. EST (1500 GMT)
In this story:
- 'Fought like heroes'
- N. Korea will listen to proposal
- 24 bodies returned, 1 person held, 1 at large
- Related stories and sites
PANMUNJOM, Korea (CNN) -- North Korea used loudspeakers to denounce South Korean leaders as "butchers" and "colonial pawns" as cremated ashes of 24 Northern submarine intruders were handed back in boxes across the border on Monday.
The solemn ceremony at the border truce village of Panmunjom was intended as a South Korean gesture to ease tensions a day after North Korea issued a two-sentence apology for the infiltration by one of its submarines in September.
Tied in white cotton bundles with black identification markings, the boxes were handed over one at a time by a 12- member honor guard from the U.S.-led United Nations Command at Panmunjom. The U.N. command monitors the cease-fire that ended the 1950-53 Korean War.
'Fought like heroes'
After troops from the North Korean People's Army had laid the ashes in wooden coffins, voices booming from loudspeakers on the Northern side of the border praised the intruders as "martyrs that fought like heroes."
In stark contrast to the tone of Sunday's apology -- an unprecedented statement of "deep regret" by North Korea -- the voices, in Korean, delivered blistering attacks on the Seoul government.
"This incident revealed that the South Korean regime consists of human butchers and colonial pawns," one said. "The soldiers were on a regular training mission and the South Koreans murdered them."
South Korea charges the incident occurred during a North Korean spy mission.
N. Korea will listen to proposal
Despite its renewed criticism of the South, North Korea also sent a peace signal Monday, saying it was ready to listen to a proposal put forward last April by U.S. President Bill Clinton and South Korean President Kim Young-sam.
Seoul and Washington have been pressing North Korea to accept a briefing on their proposal for talks, which would also include China, aimed at securing a lasting peace to replace the Korean War truce.
A briefing would not commit Pyongyang to actually participate in the talks.
North Korea also said it had agreed to resume the storage of spent nuclear fuel rods -- a key part of a 1994 agreement with the United States under which it pledged to freeze its nuclear weapons program.
24 bodies returned, 1 person held, 1 at large
Of 26 North Koreans who landed from the submarine, 11 were found shot dead -- apparently in a mass suicide -- and 13 were killed by South Korean forces during a massive manhunt. One was captured alive and one is still at large.
South Korea has said it will not return the captured agent or the submarine but it agreed to send home the remains after Pyongyang's apology, which was hailed as move toward peace by Clinton.
In its apology, North Korea promised not to repeat such incidents and pledged to work for "durable peace and stability on the Korean peninsula."
The apology was issued by the Korean Central News Agency after a series of items attacking South Korean President Kim Young-sam as a "ruthless tyrant," "puppet" and "traitor."
Seoul Bureau Chief Sohn Jie-Ae and Reuters contributed to this report.
Related stories:
- North Korea apologizes for submarine intrusion - December 29, 1996
- Hungry North Koreans face killing winter - November 12, 1996
- North Korean food shortage expected to get worse - October 5, 1996
- Two more North Korean intruders killed in manhunt - September 21, 1996
- S. Korean forces trade fire with infiltrators - September 20, 1996
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