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.
Rights commission urges North Korea to release 6 detainees
A huge North Korean flag flutters at a village in North Korea in this photo taken on July 19, 2022, near the South Korean side of the truce village of Panmunjom inside the demilitarized zone separating the two Koreas. The National Human Rights Commission of Korea has urged North Korea to release six South Korean citizens held against their will by the regime, it said Friday. Reuters-Yonhap
By Jung Min-ho
The National Human Rights Commission of Korea has urged North Korea to release six South Korean citizens held against their will by the regime, it said on Friday.
According to the commission, its representative, Lee Han-byeol, attended the Human Rights Council's Universal Periodic Review (UPR) meeting held Thursday in Geneva, where she called on the North to release Christian missionaries ― Kim Jung-wook, Kim Kook-kie and Choi Chun-gil ― as well as three North Korean defectors.
“At the UPR meeting, we emphasized the need for the immediate repatriation of six of our citizens detained in North Korea, the need to inform North Korean defectors in South Korea of the whereabouts of their families in the North, the need for the immediate repatriation of prisoners of war and the need to hold a reunification event for separated families,” the commission said.
North Korea has long been a merciless land for Christian missionaries over the decades. But for South Korean believers, it has been even more so.
In 2013, Kim Jung-wook was arrested there and sentenced to hard labor for life on charges of spying for South Korea’s intelligence agency. The following year, Kim Kook-kie and Choi were also detained on similar charges.
Two years later, three people who defected from the regime, who had obtained citizenship in South Korea, were held captive.
The commission said it will continue to work with human rights activists across the world for the freedom of the South Korean captives and raise awareness of rights abuses in the North.