Following North Korea’s unexpected release of two Americans, South Korea’s ruling and opposition parties have urged the release of a South Korean missionary still held in the North.
 
Kim Young-woo, the spokesman of the ruling Saenuri Party, said in a news briefing Sunday that the North should release Kim Jung-wook as they did with Kenneth Bae and Matthew Todd Miller.
 
Kim, a South Korean Baptist missionary, has been detained in the North since October 2013 and was sentenced to hard labor for life on charges of spying and setting up underground churches in North Korea.
 
Seo Young-kyo, a spokeswoman of the main opposition New Politics Alliance for Democracy, issued a statement on Sunday both welcoming North’s release of the two Americans and urging the same measures for Kim.
 
She said while the relationship between Pyongyang and Washington is sailing smoothly, the inter-Korean relationship is still tense because of the “exhaustive” anti-Pyongyang leaflet campaign by South Korean civic groups. 
 
Seo then urged that sending anti-Pyongyang leaflets be suspended, saying that the fliers cannot change the North.