ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, February 18, 1997 TAG: 9702180081
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-8 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: BEIJING
SOURCE: Associated Press
Chinese police guarding the South Korean consulate visibly relaxed Monday, joking and chatting amiably, after North Korea indicated it could accept the defection of the senior official holed up inside.
North Korean agents, who had kept a public, round-the-clock vigil outside the consulate since Hwang Jang Yop defected last week, withdrew Monday. North Korea did not say why.
But a spokesman at North Korea's Foreign Ministry indicated that the reclusive communist state had decided to accept the defection. Previously, North Korea had threatened to retaliate against South Korea for what it called a kidnapping.
``If he was kidnapped ... we will take decisive countermeasures,'' North Korea's official news agency quoted the unidentified spokesman as saying. ``If he sought asylum, it means that he is a renegade, and he is dismissed.''
The spokesman said North Korea has asked China to investigate Hwang's ``disappearance.''
Kang Ho-yang, spokesman for South Korea's Unification Ministry, said the comment indicated that North Korea was abandoning its earlier position in which it had rejected Hwang's defection as ``inconceivable and impossible.''
The apparent softening of North Korea's position could ease the way for Hwang to leave the consulate, where he has been holed up since asking for asylum there Wednesday.
Hwang, 73, is the highest-ranking North Korean to defect. He is a key communist theoretician and once was the private tutor of North Korean leader Kim Jong Il.
After the defection, Chinese troops with automatic weapons laid tire-shredding spikes in the streets around the consulate and guarded the building. Their security measures increased as the standoff dragged on.
In deciding whether to let Hwang proceed to South Korea, China finds itself in a delicate situation. It does not want to infuriate North Korea, a longtime ally it fought with in the 1950-53 Korean War. But South Korea is an important trading partner - the two countries did about $20 billion in trade last year.
The defection also worsened tensions between North and South Korea, which technically remain at war.
On Saturday, a key North Korean defector living in Seoul was shot and critically wounded in an attack that Seoul claimed was a North Korean response to the defection. Lee Han-young, 36, is a nephew of a former wife of the North Korean leader.
LENGTH: Medium: 53 linesby CNB