South-North Family Reunions Suspended

The South Korean press suspended its coverage of the 13th Annual Reunion of Dispersed Family Members Event sponsored by the South Korean Joint Selection Committee yesterday, and moved its reporters back to South Korea after being confronted with North Korean censorship efforts and outright hostility.

Seventeen South Korean reporters held a conference yesterday morning and said, “The North violated the agreement between the North and the South in relation to its guarantee of freedom of the press. Because that freedom was destroyed, we can no longer report.” The members then announced the suspension and withdrawal of the reporters.

A second reunion organization from South Korea, including 420 people and four reporters, went to Mt. Geumgang. After the four reporters withdrew, the family members went ahead with a planned mass reunion at 3:00 p.m. yesterday at Onjeonggak without South Korean news coverage.

Although the government has expressed regret over the North’s perpetration of the situation, it has not demanded an apology or taken any action to prevent a recurrence.

According to the south Korean reporters, on March 20 when the event began, North Korean security personnel (event workers) Kim Gwang Song and Han Chun Yol entered a South Korean satellite relay vehicle and after examining broadcast news tapes recorded by SBS reporters, confiscated them because of the use of the phrase, “kidnapped by the North.”

The SBS reporters changed, “kidnapped by the North” to “disappeared to the North,” but Kim Gwang Song and others told them to change it to “unknown whether they are alive or dead,” and told them from then on to “bring the articles to us first.”

Ultimately, the SBS reporters were unable to air their broadcast on that day. Kim Gwang Song and others also prevented the broadcast of MBC reporters because of their use of the term, “capture.”

In addition, when YTN reporters attempted to air a broadcast using the term, “disappeared to the North,” Kim Gwang Song and his team entered their satellite relay vehicle and started to randomly press buttons on the equipment, interrupting the broadcast. Because of such actions, there were even physical altercations between KTV staff responsible for broadcasting and Han Chun Yol.

On March 22, the North demanded that MBC and SBS reporters, along with the first reunion family members, return to the South, and delayed the dispersed family members’ return to the South by 10 hours. On that day, at 5:30 p.m., they threatened South Korean authorities, declaring “If the MBC and SBS reporters do not leave within 30 minutes, we will deal with them according to North Korean law.”

Ultimately, at around 11:15 p.m., MBC and SBS reporters returned to the South with the reunion organizations.

Myoung-Gun Lee gun43@donga.com