South Korean Detainees In North Korea Admit To Being Spies

Maybe they are spies or are just making a false confession under duress, but the fact that the North Koreans are publicizing this shows that they want to use them as bargaining chips in future negotiations:

Two South Koreans detained in North Korea told CNN on Sunday that they spied for South Korea.

South Korea has flatly rejected the accusations and urged Pyongyang to release them.

The interviews came after North Korea announced on Saturday that it arrested a South Korean student studying in the U.S. on charges of illegal entry into the country, the fourth South Korean citizen detained in the North.

South Korean missionary Kim Jung-wook has been held there since October 2013.

Sunday’s interviews as well as the new detention could be an attempt by Pyongyang to pressure South Korea to shift its policy toward the communist nation. The North could also use the detainees as a negotiating chip should inter-Korean talks reopen.

When announcing last month the arrest of the two CNN interviewees — Kim Kuk-gi and Choe Chun-gil — North Korea accused them of working as spies for South Korea’s main intelligence agency National Intelligence Service (NIS), branding them “heinous terrorists.”

In Sunday’s interviews, both Kim, 61, and Choe, 56, admitted to the charges against them and said they would accept any punishment the North Korean government decided. North Korean minders were present during the interviews, CNN said.  [Yonhap]

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