A file picture shows foreign tourists on the North Korean side of the truce village of Panmunjom. [Yonhap News Photo ]
South Korea tested cross-border hotlines to send a message about the repatriation of six North Korean fishermen who were rescued last week after their boats strayed into southern waters.
The test was done early Tuesday, but North Korea did not respond, according to the South's unification ministry. South Korean officials using a loudspeaker will read a message later in the truce village of Panmunjom as they did for the repatriation of eight North Korean fishermen in December last year.
In Panmunjom and other areas, the two Koreas have maintained military and other hotlines for an exchange of messages and personnel, but Pyongyang cut off all cross-border exchanges and contact in February last year amid high military tensions caused by its nuclear and missile tests.
Chung Eui-yong, the South's top presidential security advisor, has called for
a need to resume talks with North Korea on reopening channels of communication such as a hotline in Panmunjom for emergency contact.
South Korea's coastguard last Saturday rescued six North Koreans who strayed into southern territory aboard two small fishing boats off the east coast. During an interrogation by security authorities, they expressed their desire to return home.
The six will be repatriated Wednesday morning in an operation near the maritime border off the east coast, the unification ministry said. If North Korean patrol ship does not turn up, they will be sent home aboard one of their boats.
Lim Chang-won = cwlim34@ajunews.com
reporter
Park Sae-jin
swatchsjp@ajunews.com
