North Korea Tuesday reopened the border only a day after it virtually detained 620 South Koreans, but uncertainty lingers as the sole military communications line between the two Koreas remains cut off. "Nobody knows when North Korea will ban overland travel again under whatever pretext," a South Korean official said.
| They need the cash too much to close it for very long. |
Asked if there are grounds for the belief that North Korea would continue to allow South Koreans to travel to the North and if the government has plans to prevent a recurrence of similar incidents, Unification Ministry spokesman Kim Ho-nyoun merely said, "I think the South and the North should try hard."
Kim added, "We strongly protested to the North, which responded" by letting the South Koreans return home, most from the Kaesong Industrial Complex, where they had been stranded.
Experts warn the South should be wary of letting people travel North until Pyongyang promises to guarantee civilian South Koreans' safety. They said it is irrational for the South to trust previous inter-Korean agreements after that the North on Jan. 30 declared all of them null and void. |