South Korean public anger over handling of North Korean artillery attack

North Korea accused South Korea of using civilians as human shields around military bases on an island that the North hit with an artillery attack this past week. The accusation is an apparent effort to quell South Korean outrage over the barrage, which killed two civilian construction workers. 

The KCNA report said South Korea should be held responsible for the civilian deaths because it had used civilians as human shields around its artillery batteries. The South “is now working hard to dramatize the ‘civilian casualties’ as part of its propaganda campaign”, the report said.

South Korean public anger has also lashed out at President Lee Myung-bak for what many here see as the military’s failure to make more than a token response to Tuesday’s attack. There were at least two protests in Seoul that criticized both North Korean leader Kim Jong-il for the attack and President Lee for his weak response.

While South Koreans seemed to respond to past provocations with an air of resignation, this time there have been loud calls here for stronger military retaliation or a permanent end to all aid to the North. Much of that aid was cut off following the sinking of the Cheonan, but last month North Korea asked the South for food and other assistance following deadly floods.

Icy relations thawing between North and South Korea

South Korean President Lee Myung-bak will meet with a visiting delegation from North Korea, according to the South's state media.

South Korean Unification Minister Hyun In Taek met with North Korean unity leader Kim Yang Gon earlier Saturday in a possible sign that icy relations between the two rival nations are thawing.

The meeting was the first high-level, cross-border contact in nearly two years. And are in stark contrast to the tense public statements they made about each other earlier this year.

How North Koreans-turned-South Korean stand out

China can verify whether a South Korean citizen is a North Korean defector by checking a social-security number, the last four digits of the social-security number indicate where the identification was issued. North Korean refugees are issued a code that indicates they are from Ansung city, the locale of a training center called Hanawon where all North Korean refugees go through a few months of settlement training to adapt to their new life in the South.

Based on this peculiar ID pattern, many North Korean settlers are often denied a Chinese entry visa. At the same time, they are also subject to employment discrimination from South Korean companies that avoid hiring them because of their lack of job skills and cultural differences.

The South Korean government abolished the problematic system in June and initiated a new one in which North Koreans receive social-security numbers that show the place of their choice of residence, not Ansung.

The remedy, however, is still not perfect. Those who received their social-security numbers before the launch of the new system still have to use their old ID, and it's impossible for them to change their ID numbers because doing so would require a change of the relevant law and parliamentary approval.

[Excerpt of an article by Sunny Lee, The Asian Times]

S. Korea and China Scuffle Over North Korean Defectors

South Korea's Foreign Ministry office filed an official protest against the treatment of South Korean diplomats by Chinese police following a tussle during the arrest of North Korean defectors, reports the Korea Daily.

Four individuals were found hiding in the restroom of a South Korean school in Beijing, where they were seeking asylum and safe passage to South Korea.

Thirty police officers arrived on the scene, blocking officials from the South Korean embassy from approaching the defectors. At one point, the report notes, police tussled with the embassy officials, pinning the arms of two and forcing them from school grounds.

Since 2004 roughly sixty North Koreans have sought asylum in the school, which is not protected by diplomatic immunity. Still, most have been allowed to go on to South Korea by Chinese authorities, which legally term such persons as 'economic migrants.'

Historic Korean Pact Signed

Leaders of the two Koreas, South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun and North Korea's Kim Jong Il, began formal talks Wednesday at the first summit between the divided countries in seven years.

This week's summit is only the second time that leaders of North and South Korea have met since the Korean peninsula was divided after World War II.

The leaders of North and South Korea signed a pact pledging to seek a permanent peace agreement.