The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) has condemned "the inhuman act" perpetrated by the S. Korean authorities against 31 DPRK fishermen detained by them in February, the official news agency KCNA reported on Tuesday.

According to the KCNA, the Central Committee of the Red Cross Society of the DPRK said in the statement Monday that the fishermen who had gone adrift in the West Sea of Korea were " kidnapped" and "unreasonably detained" by the S. Korean authorities, who conducted an operation to force them to "defect" to the south and refused to repatriate some of them.

The fishing boat with 31 DPRK inhabitants on it was pulled by three high-speed boats of the S. Korean navy with hooks "in the waters under the control of the DPRK". The S. Korean soldiers jumped over the fishing boat, beat the DPRK inhabitants, threatened them with arms and tried to pull the boat southward ignoring the protest of the DPRK inhabitants, said the statement.

More than 10 warships of the S. Korean navy were combat-ready in the nearby waters at that time, the statement added.

The S. Korean authorities were busy with a sinister operation to force the detainees to "defect" to the south after kidnapped them. When the inhabitants did not comply with their demand, they threatened and blackmailed against them. They even threatened the girls with sexual abuses, said the statement.

The statement dismissed the "will for defection" allegedly expressed by four detainees as a fabrication.

The group used the unexpected bad weather the inhabitants met to realize its sinister purpose of escalating confrontation with fellow countrymen, scuttling the north-south dialogue and chilling the atmosphere of improving the inter-Korean relations, said the statement.

The statement urged the Red Cross of S. Korea not to allow itself to serve the purpose of the S. Korean authorities' despicable policy of confrontation with compatriots.

On Feb. 5, 31 DPRK fishermen lost in thick fog when fishing at sea. After being detained by South Korean authorities for more than one month, 27 were sent home on March 27, but South Korea said the remaining four had "defected" and would not return.

The DPRK Red Cross Society sent a notice to the south on March 30 to propose having north-south Red Cross working contact to discuss and settle the issue of the four fisherman. The S. Korea rejected such proposal.