Jung Min-ho has worked as a staff writer at The Korea Times since 2012, mostly covering social and political issues. He currently belongs to the Politics & City Desk where he covers topics such as health, labor and human rights. Prior to joining the team, he was responsible for covering North Korea and sports. His article about a biosecurity breach of Middle East respiratory syndrome won him an award from the Korea Science Journalists Association in 2016. He is also the co-author of the book, "Medical Pioneers of Korea" (2019). He served as the head of the international relations committee at the Journalists Association of Korea from 2021 to 2023.
Yoon urged to raise N. Korea rights issues in talks with UK, Dutch leaders
President Yoon Suk Yeol and British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak shake hands during a Group of Seven summit held at Grand Prince Hotel Hiroshima in Hiroshima, Japan, May 20. Newsis
By Jung Min-ho
Families of detainees, deportation victims join calls ahead of president’s overseas trip
The families of the victims of North Korea’s brutal human rights abuses have joined activists to call on President Yoon Suk Yeol to raise rights issues in upcoming summits with his British and Dutch counterparts, saying consistent messaging is important in bringing about actual change.
Ahead of his state visit to London later this month as well as Amsterdam and The Hague next month, Kim Jung-sam, whose brother Kim Jung-wook has been held in North Korea since 2013, and Kim Kyu-li, sister of Kim Cheol-ok who was deported by China to the North last month, sent Yoon a joint letter written with nine rights groups, a participating activist told The Korea Times on Sunday.
“We ask that you (Yoon) publicly urge the resolution of the issues of South Korean prisoners of war (POWs), abductees and detainees in North Korea and reform of China’s policy and practice of forcible repatriation of North Korean refugees in the keynote address during the state visits to the United Kingdom on Nov. 20 to 23 and to the Netherlands on Dec. 12 to 13,” they said in a statement.
Since the end of the 1950-53 Korean War, the regime has refused to send back an estimated 50,000 South Korean POWs and 100,000 civilian abductees in apparent violation of the 1953 Korean Armistice Agreement as well as the 1949 Geneva Conventions.
Even after the armed conflict, more than 500 South Koreans have been abducted by North Korea, including three Christian missionaries and three North Korean escapees with South Korean citizenship in the past 10 years, according to government data.
Rights groups praised Yoon when the president and his U.S. and Japanese counterparts ― Joe Biden and Fumio Kishida ― declared, for the first time, their shared commitment to resolving the issues of abductees, detainees and POWs in North Korea during a three-way summit at Camp David in August.
“However, it is important to maintain consistent messaging on these issues,” they said.
“We urge you to continue discussing these issues and to lead the international diplomatic efforts afterward to resolve immediately all issues related to all POWs, abductees and detainees, in particular the realization of their immediate return and accountability.”
President Yoon Suk Yeol shakes hands with Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte at a restaurant in Vilnius, Lithuania, July 11. Newsis
Beijing’s deportation of hundreds of North Korean escapees should also be discussed when Yoon meets with political leaders in Britain and the Netherlands, the groups said.
“It was reported that China repatriated at least 500 North Korean detainees on the night of Oct. 9, the day after the closing of the Hangzhou Asian Games,” they noted.
“We ask you to discuss and condemn China’s forcible repatriation of North Korean escapees, urge China to respect the principle of non-refoulement and establish the refugee status determination system and call upon the international community, including the United Nations, to pay greater attention to the issue.”
Beijing has treated North Koreans crossing the border as illegal migrants, claiming it has the right to send them back. Rights experts say such repatriations of escapees ― for whatever excuse China makes ― are clear violations of multiple U.N. treaties, including the Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, which China promised to respect as a participating party.