It almost never happens that South Korea returns North Korean refugees against their will. But now master images of the deportation the news of two fishermen for days. “The [vorige] government sent these two fishermen to their deaths when it should have taken them in under the law in South Korea,” a spokesman for current President Yoon Suk-yeol said on Sunday.
The two men fled by boat to South Korea in 2019. Their interrogation would have led to a strong suspicion that the duo had killed the other 16 crew members with an ax and hammer – and then fled south. The pair were sent back to North Korea a week after their arrival.
South Korea’s unification ministry shared video footage of the fishermen’s heavy-handed transfer to North Korea for the first time on Monday. It clearly shows that one of them is resisting the deportation. Since then, a discussion has raged between Chung Eui-yong, national security adviser to the previous Moon administration, and representatives of the new president Yoon.
The latter allege that returning the men violates South Korea’s constitution, which states that all North Koreans are entitled to South Korean nationality if they manage to reach that country — and may only be returned if they do so themselves. want.
Nonsense, Chung thinks. “These are notorious horrific killers,” the former security adviser said in a statement. “Our national law states that criminals who have committed non-political and serious crimes, such as murder, should be deported.” They would not be entitled to refugee status, which is contradicted by the UN Rapporteur on North Korean Human Rights.
The current press spokesperson then hit back. The fact that the two were returned within a week would mean that there has been no thorough investigation. Nor were they charged or convicted before they were deported.
Approach Attempts
For years, Moon Jae-in’s government undertook frantic but largely fruitless rapprochement efforts with North Korea in hopes of moving the Kim Jong-un regime towards a more peaceful policy and nuclear disarmament. But Chung strongly denies that Seoul would have sent the fishermen back at Pyongyang’s request. “It was the South Korean government that asked the North to take back the two men.” The Yoon administration is investigating the eviction, and does not rule out prosecution of former officials.
Human Rights Watch said Moon was “so desperate to appease North Korean leader Kim Jong-un” that he “blatantly flouted basic principles of human rights.” Suzanne Scholte of the North Korea Freedom Coalition said the deportation amounted to “complicity in murder”. There is a good chance that the fishermen in North Korea will receive the death penalty or be sentenced to a penal camp.