Can Seoul make play for detainees in North Korea?

Shin Sook-ja, a 69-year-old South Korean detained by North Korea, is pictured in what is believed to be the Yodok prison camp in the North, in this photograph received by her husband in 1992. Courtesy of Sage Korea

By Kim Young-jin

Calls are growing for the government to step up efforts to rescue South Koreans detained in North Korea, including a 69-year-old woman stranded for decades after being lured there with her husband. But given North Korea’s dismal track record on human rights, does it stand any chance of securing their return?

The question is being voiced by a grassroots campaign over the plight of the woman, Shin Sook-ja, and her two daughters who have been detained since 1985. Her husband, a retired economist, escaped after North Korean authorities sent him to Germany to entice more South Koreans to the Stalinist state.

Other campaigns have urged the administration to work for the release of South Koreans abducted since the end of the Korean War, including 11 victims of a 1969 hijacking of a passenger jet by a North Korean agent. An official with the Ministry of Unification said that while the government was “very concerned” and “willing to do its best” to bring them back, it has made no concrete plans.

Any efforts would face steep challenges as Pyongyang has long denied its human rights abuses, from abduction to its sprawling political prisoner system. It has not allowed access to U.N. special human rights rapporteurs and it is widely believed any broaching of the subject during multilateral negotiations would prompt abrupt storming away from the table.

Still, experts say that Shin’s situation is not yet a lost cause, especially as the sides are beginning to talk again after years of tension in a bid to resume six-party denuclearization talks.

Choi Jin-wook, an analyst with the Korean Institute for National Unification, said because Shin voluntarily entered the North, the sides could discuss her without bringing up the thorny abduction issue and that it was “not impossible” for her case to be addressed in the framework of larger talks involving humanitarian aid.

The Lee Myung-bak administration has apparently tailored its hard-line stance on the North amid the warming trend, allowing for more cultural exchanges and humanitarian relief efforts.

“South Korea is now trying to be flexible with North Korea,” he said. “The North is trying to get more humanitarian aid. It can use (Shin’s case) as leverage.” The main hurdle for a deal would be Shin’s reported detention at the notorious Yodok prison camp, which she could shed light on if released.

Activists fighting for Shin’s release recently took out full page ads in local dailies calling on U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon to advocate on her behalf.

Shin Chang-hoon, an expert on international law and conflict resolution at the Asan Institute for Policy Studies, said that while such moves were useful to raise awareness, it would be better for the issue to be handled cautiously between the Koreas, especially if the sides ever hold a third summit.

“The best solution I think is to make an amicable environment in order for North Korea to voluntarily release them to South Korea. To force North Korea to do so by way of pressures from the international community is not a good idea, because any pressure would be considered humiliating,” he said. “In that context, I think a package deal after resuming summit talks between both Koreas would be more effective.”

Family members of the abducted, including those of the 11 citizens aboard the hijacked KAL YS-11 who never returned, are urging more action from the government to retrieve them.

The North is believed to have abducted 3,835 South Korean citizens, mostly fishermen, since the fratricidal conflict ended in an armistice, with 500 remaining there. This is in addition to the 85,000 Southerners taken as prisoners during the war and not repatriated.

Pyongyang denies holding any South Korean prisoners of war and claims the civilians defected voluntarily.

The South brought up the issue as recently as April, when it proposed inter-Korean Red Cross talks over a group of North Korean defectors who floated across the maritime border on a boat. It said the sides should discuss the free will of the defectors, claiming that they had been kidnapped, as well as that of South Koreans held in the North.

Choi said it would be difficult to raise the issue given the North’s repeated denial of its abduction history. Seoul has traditionally broached their situation under the guise of families separated by the war and is currently mulling establishing a task force to search for ways to handle the issue.

Such analysis has some activists and international law experts calling for the issue to be referred to the international community. They say the abductions are clear violations of the Geneva Convention and that they could be handled by the International Criminal Court.

The U.S. Committee for Human Rights in North Korea says Pyongyang has kidnapped over 180,000 citizens of 12 nations, including the South.

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