By Just goes to show the good old Kim Jong Il will do anything to make a buck:
Stalinist North Korea is demanding billions of dollars in compensation for alleged atrocities against its prisoners of war and spies formerly held in South Korea, a demand which has sparked outrage among politicians in Seoul.
There was no official response from the government to the unprecedented demand. But the main opposition party Sunday highlighted the North’s own rights record, which often comes in for strong international criticism.
The formal damages complaint was filed to the South’s human rights commission through a border office Friday, the North’s official Korean Central News Agency said.
This demand was so outrageous the (anti)-Unification Ministry actually condemned the comments:
A senior unification ministry official told AFP on condition of anonymity that “the North Korean complaint is not worth being given any serious consideration.”
This still goes to show what cowards the Unification Ministry is when someone has to condemn this outrageous demand anonymously, but at least they did condemn it.
Undoubtedly the former prisoners were tortured at some point in South Korean prisons, but if North Korea wants compensation than how about first releasing the thousands of South Korean prisoners currently in wallowing in North Korean gulags. Outrageous, but I am curious to see how President Roh responds to this.
