SEOUL - Contrary to South Korea which selected candidates hoping to be reunited with their relatives next month randomly through a computerized draw, North Korea seemed to have picked its candidates on the basis of their social standing and ideology, officials said July 18.
"If you look at the North’s list, you can see a considerable number of prominent people, which shows that the North has made the list out of careful consideration," a Unification Ministry official said, requesting anonymity.
"They appear to have selected the well-off who are unlikely to be shaken or influenced by their visit to South Korea," the official said.
South and North Korea on July 16 exchanged the lists of 200 candidates hoping to be reunited with their long-lost families around Aug. 15, to confirm whether their families are still alive.
The Seoul government released the North’s list on July 16, saying that the decision was made to speed up the process of tracking down the families living in the South.
Among the 200 North Korean candidates are many prominent academics and artists, including Prof. Jo Ju-gyong of Kim Il Sung University and Jong Chang-mo from Mansudae Art Studio.
"It seems that the North selected 200 candidates taking primarily into consideration their ideology and status," Cho Myong-chul, a former professor at Kim Il Sung University, was quoted as saying in a local newspaper.
The North, wary that its poverty-stricken people might see how South Koreans have really lived, only allowed one such exchange of separated families in 1985, when 50 people from each side were allowed to be reunited with their families briefly.
"By sending fairly well-off and prominent people, the North is hoping to deliver a message that their people are living in good conditions and that the country has not as many problems with the human rights as the outside world thinks," another North Korea watcher told The Korea Times.
Meanwhile, after confirming the whereabouts of the people, the South will hand over the list of North Korean candidates, whose families or relatives were confirmed to be alive in the South, July 26.
Since the shortlist was revealed on July 16, people have been racing to the ministry. The Korea National Red Cross revealed that out of 200 North Koreans seeking to find their relatives here, more than 170 were confirmed to have relatives living in South Korea.
Officials said that the North will also have no problems verifying the whereabouts of the families of the South Korean applicants since most North Koreans live in one place for a long time and because of a tight surveillance system that the North exercises over its people.
Officials said that they will hold Red Cross contacts with the North this week to discuss the venue of the reunion next month.
"We have proposed to the North on July 16 that each side travel by car through the truce village of Panmunjom. We also proposed exchanging the families between 10 a.m. and 11 a.m.," a senior ministry official said.
He did not rule out the possibility that the North would propose traveling by air.
"We cannot rule out the possibility that the North would propose exchanging families by air in an attempt to test the air route prior to North Korean leader Kim Jong-il’s planned return visit to Seoul," the official said.
The 100 North Koreans will stay in Sheraton Walker Hill Hotel and the 100 South Koreans are likely to stay in Pyongyang’s Koryo Hotel which was recently re-decorated for the historic inter-Korean summit last month.