Six elderly men who served lengthy jail terms for spying against South Korea have asked to be sent back to the North decades after their release.
The six men — now aged between 80 and 96 — served decades in prison while refusing to renounce their communist beliefs.
One former prisoner, Ahn Hak-sop, 95, was arrested during the Korean War and jailed for more than 40 years before being released.
A civic group representing the six men said it had asked the government to allow them to be sent to the North on Wednesday.
It argued the men should be treated as "prisoners of war" whose request must be respected under the Geneva Convention.
An official at the Unification Ministry in charge of inter-Korean affairs explained it had "received an official request for repatriation," and said it was "looking at various ways to address this".
The official said more former convicts in similar positions were expected to demand repatriation, adding the government had no precise figure for how many of them remained alive.
Push to improve North and South relations
North and South Korea still remain technically at war as the 1950-53 Korean War ended in an armistice, not a peace treaty.
The request comes after South Korea's new President Lee Jae-myung — elected in a June snap poll — vowed to improve ties with the nuclear-armed North and resume dialogue.
Mr Lee's administration has made a series of Pyongyang-friendly gestures, including removing propaganda loudspeakers along the border, which have long irritated the North.
Mr Lee pledged last week to "respect" North Korea's political system and build "military trust".
A day earlier, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un's sister, Kim Yo Jong, said the North had "no will to improve relations" with the South.
In 2000, South Korea repatriated 63 "unconverted" former prisoners through the border truce village of Panmunjom during a period of rapprochement — the first and only such event to date.
AFP/ABC
