Student, Priest Arrested Crossing Korean Border

A weeping radical student and a Roman Catholic priest were promptly detained today when they became the first South Korean dissidents to cross from North Korea over the heavily fortified border.

Arm-in-arm and ignoring warnings from a lone South Korean guard that they risked prosecution, student Im Su Kyong and Father Moon Kyu Hyun walked through the tense truce village of Panmunjom.

Reporters invited by North Korea to witness the crossing watched as the pair passed out of sight on the southern side of the low concrete line dividing the two hostile states.

Tough Laws

South Korean security officials were on hand to enforce Seoul’s tough laws banning unauthorized contacts with the North.

Government officials in Seoul said the two surrendered, were swiftly detained and flown by helicopter 30 miles to the southern capital for interrogation.

Im, 21, a student of French, and Moon said they were not propaganda pawns but dedicated to furthering reunification of the two Koreas, which have been divided since 1945.

Earlier, a cavalcade of limousines whisked them and North Korean officials from the nearby city of Kaesong to Panmunjom.

‘Unite the Country’

Crowds lined the route and erupted into near hysteria when Im began chanting the slogans “Korea is one” and “Unite the country” from speakers mounted on her open-topped limousine.

Foreign residents in Pyongyang described Im as a “superstar” in North Korea over the last two weeks. She appeared on television every night and electrified the public.

Declaring herself “willing to die,” she broke down in tears during an impassioned speech to an official entourage and foreign reporters at Panmunjom.

“My heart aches because in the South the truth is turned upside down,” Im said.