Lawyers of the Bar Association for Democratic Society visited the "Center for Protecting North Korean Defectors" in Sihung, Kyonggi Province and asked for meeting the north Korean women.

But gangsters of the Intelligence Service declined the request, saying that "north Korean employees came of their own accord and, therefore, it is impossible to meet them."

The lawyers held a press conference before the center in protest against the authorities' base action.

At the press conference the speakers denounced the Intelligence Service for barring the lawyers from meeting north Korean women employees under absurd pretexts.

The South Side Committee for Implementing the June 15 Joint Declaration on May 17 issued a statement demanding the earliest probe into the truth behind the group abduction.

The statement accused the "government" of turning down the request of the lawyers for interview under such pretexts as "will of north Korean defectors themselves" and "personal safety." It denounced the regime for turning down the request made by the parents of the north Korean women employees to take technical measures for allowing them to meet their daughters face to face.

The south Korean newspaper Hangyore on May 17 hit out at the authorities for preventing the lawyers from meeting the north Korean women under similar absurd pretext.