Indonesia Welcomes Pyongyang's Release of Six South Koreans
19 October 2018 21:58 WIB
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The Government of Indonesia welcomes the news of the release of six South Korean nationals by the Government of North Korea, announced a press release issued by the Indonesian Foreign Ministry.
"This positive development is consistent with Indonesian Government's hope which stresses the importance of humanitarian consideration and the creation of a conducive condition for the promotion of inter-Korean relations,” said Foreign Minister Marty M. Natalegawa.
On Friday, the Pyongyang government released at the border village of Panmunjom, six South Koreans whom it had imprisoned for illegally entering North Korea. In Seoul, South Korean Unification Ministry spokesman Kim Eui-do welcomed the release.
Since the end of the Korean War in the 1950s, some 25,000 North Koreans have defected to the more rich South Korea, but defections from South to North are very rare.
Indonesian Foreign Minister Natalegawa had been in Pyongyai on an official visit from October 21 to 23. (*)
