By Park Song-wu
Staff Reporter

Even though her grandfather was not able to visit his hometown in North Korea, young actress Moon Geun-young could help warm her grandfather’s Northern brethren by delivering tons of briquettes, a must for the North to endure the harsh cold weather.

Moon, who visited the North on Monday to donate 50,000 blocks of compressed charcoal, is a granddaughter of a North Korean who served a long prison term in South Korea due to his refusal to renounce communism.

A six-member delegation, including the 17-year-old star, crossed the demilitarized zone through Kangwon Province to present the truck-loads of briquettes and 200 stoves as part of a humanitarian campaign organized by an Internet portal service Empas.

During her half-day trip to the North, Moon said she was so happy to participate in ``such a good event.’’ She also promised to continue helping North Koreans.

But she didn’t talk about her personal feelings over the visit, which she might have had given that a member of her family had suffered a lot under the past military regimes in South Korea. She was also not asked about it by the media because her family background had been hidden from the public.

``Her grandfather is in good health,’’ Moon’s manager Kim Heung-kyun told The Korea Times on Wednesday. ``He, however, is not fully aware of Moon’s recent activities.’’ Kim declined to elaborate on the situation.

Moon became a teenage idol for her role as a cute high school student who marries a college hunk in recent romantic comedy ``Orin Sinbu (My Little Bride).’’

Her grandfather was one of hundreds of North Korean soldiers or spies who were captured in the South during or after the 1950-53 Korean War and served prison terms.

Those who switched their political beliefs were quickly released from prison, while those who declined to adopt the capitalist ideology remained captives until 1999. Human rights activists in Seoul said the average prison term served by the total 94 prisoners was 31 years.

Kim was very cautious due to the possibility that revelations about her family background might negatively affect Moon’s career as a movie star. South Korea still has many conservatives who have knee-jerk reactions toward leftist ideologies.

Kim also worried about negative reactions from Pyongyang, such as not accepting briquettes from the campaign.

But a high-ranking Unification Ministry official in

Seoul said the North will not likely decline humanitarian aid from Seoul because it is in a dire situation, though Moon may be criticized by conservatives in the South.

All North Korean captives in South Korea have now been released. A group of 63 North Koreans were repatriated to Pyongyang in September 2000 following the breakthrough inter-Korean summit in June that year. Civic groups in South Korea want Seoul to send another group of 30 former captives to Pyongyang, as well.

In a related development, the Korea Coal Corporation also plans to provide the North with 500,000 briquettes sometime soon, the Unification Ministry said.

im@koreatimes.co.kr