#South #Korea #promises #investigate #North #Korean #expulsions
The South Korean government on Wednesday criticized the controversial 2019 repatriation of two North Koreans after releasing photos that appeared to show one of them resisted the handover.
The government of then-President Moon Jae-in expelled the men after investigators said the couple murdered 16 crew members before entering South Korean waters on their fishing boat.
The government said at the time that the men – described by officials as “dangerous criminals” – had no intention of defecting. At least two officials said the couple did not want to stay in South Korea.
But pictures of their transfer to the truce village of Panmunjom, released Tuesday by the new, conservative government, showed a man desperately resisting the handover.
If they were “forcibly” sent to North Korea, it would be “a crime against humanity that violates both international law and the constitution,” President Yoon Suk-yeol’s spokeswoman Kang In-sun told reporters.
The government will “fully establish the truth behind this case,” she said.
One picture showed a man collapsed on the ground and apparently being dragged by officials to the military demarcation line between the two Koreas.
In other photos, the two men appeared tied with ropes and blindfolded before their repatriation.
Human rights groups have said in the past that the transfer violated international law because of the likelihood that the men would be tortured or worse in North Korea.
South Korean media reported at the time that the two men were blindfolded on their trip and only realized their fate when their masks were removed to reveal North Korean soldiers ready to take them into custody.
The conservative Chosun Ilbo reported that one of them collapsed immediately.
– “Disgusting and callous” –
The hawkish Yoon slammed his predecessor’s dovish stance and accused the liberal Moon of placating Pyongyang.
The fall of 2019 was the first-ever south-to-north transfer since the end of the Korean War.
It was strongly condemned as a breach of the law by human rights groups, who also accused Moon of trying to ingratiate himself with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
Under South Korea’s constitution, all North Koreans are automatically considered citizens, and those who reach their territory and express a desire to defect can routinely remain.
A Moon government official said in 2019 the two men had been turned back because they “posed a threat” to society and because they were “dangerous criminals” they could not be considered fugitives.
And Kim Yeon-chul, Moon’s unification minister, told lawmakers at the time that the fishermen didn’t want to stay. He said they told the South Korean authorities, “Even if we die, we would like to die in our homeland.”
But Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch, said Wednesday that the men’s “desperate resistance to being pushed back” was evident in the newly released photos.
He accused Moon – a former human rights lawyer – and his government of having “a disgusting and callous disregard for human rights”.
The photos show that the deported men “understood that they were fighting for their lives,” Robertson added.
Since Yoon took office in May, prosecutors have reopened the case.
And last week, South Korea’s intelligence agency also called for a formal investigation into allegations that its former boss under Moon, Suh Hoon, ordered the early conclusion of an internal investigation into the matter.
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