Roh must bring missing South Koreans home

SEOUL, Aug 10 (Reuters) Relatives of South Korean prisoners of war and civilians believed held by the North demanded their unconditional return during President Roh Moo-hyun's landmark trip to Pyongyang later this month.

Leaders of the two Koreas still technically at war will meet for only the second time in more than half a century when Roh crosses the border for a summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-il on Aug 28-30.

''The governments of South and North Korea must not try to fool anyone with some symbolic return of civilian abductees and prisoners of war,'' a coalition of groups working for the missing people's return said in a statement.

There are more than 1,000 South Korean civilian abductees and prisoners captured during the 1950-1953 Korean War who are thought to be still alive in the North, the South Korean government has said.

''The only true sense of reconciliation of the South and the North will be in their unconditional and complete return, and the governments must act on it,'' the statement said.

South Korea has for years been reluctant to press the North on the abductees for fear it would jeopardise warming ties brought in by the first summit in 2000. In its meetings with the North, the South uses the euphemism '' people who went missing during and after the war.'' ''We believed our country would look for us. Then 10 years came and went several times over and nobody looked for us,'' Yoo Chol-su, a former prisoner of war who fled back to the South in 2000, told a news conference.

North Korea has insisted that it is not holding any South Koreans against their will.

Rhee Bong-jo, president of the Korea Institute for National Unification, told reporters yesterday: ''In order for there to be reconciliation between the two sides, issues such as uniting separated families, abductees and POWS must be resolved.'' REUTERS RSA HS1557