The Supreme Court Monday ruled in favor of a high-profile North Korean defector who has been repeatedly denied a passport to travel to the United States, citing the need to protect the defector's basic right.
The highest court's edict dismissed an appeal by the Foreign Ministry, which warned that the defector could be a target of North Korean assassination attempts in the U.S. and that his planned trip could cause diplomatic friction.
Kim Tok-hong, 69, filed a petition in 2004 against the Foreign Ministry that twice denied his passport applications. Before defecting to Seoul in 1997, Kim was president of North Korea's Yogwang General Trading Company and an aide to Hwang Jang-yop, former secretary of the North Korean Workers' Party and the highest-ranking North Korean to defect to Seoul so far. The two defected together.
"His right to travel overseas, as a citizen of this country, should be guaranteed to the full," Kim Ji-hyung, presiding justice at the top court, said. "With vague concerns of his security, the government should not restrict his basic right more than it does those of ordinary citizens of the Republic of Korea."
Kim applied for his passport in 2004 after receiving invitations from U.S. non-governmental think tanks, the Defense Forum Foundation and the Hudson Institute. Both occasionally host North Korea forums.
Asked by the ministry for background checks, the National Intelligence Service recommended that his application be withheld until the government devises security measures for the defector and the U.S. organizations. The agency, according to the court, believed chances were high that Kim, under 24-hour police protection at that time, could be assassinated if left without high-level protection on U.S. soil. Such an incident, the spy agency said, could hamper inter-Korean relations.
Kim, along with Hwang, was under the protection of South Korean intelligence and police at that time. The two had received death threats in early 2003. A blood-stained picture of Hwang, his face pierced by a kitchen knife, and a message threatening to kill high-ranking North Korean defectors were dropped off at the office of the North Korean defectors in eastern Seoul. Months later, another death threat was made against Kim.
In denying his passport applications, the Foreign Ministry said the high-ranking North Korean defector's trip to the U.S. could harm the national interest. Kim took the case to the Seoul Administrative Court in 2005 but lost the suit.
Kim then filed an appeal with the Seoul High Court, which overturned the lower court's ruling and ordered the ministry to withdraw its denial of his passport.
The Foreign Ministry filed a final appeal to the Supreme Court, but the top court upheld the Seoul High Court's ruling.
The justice said, "Even if such an (security) accident happened, chances are very low that the incident would cause a problem with the government's North Korea policy or cause a fall in the country's global credit rating or cause diplomatic friction with the U.S., and thus it's difficult to see how his trip could damage the national interest or public security," the justice said.
The justice also noted that Pyongyang and Washington are improving their relations and that no assassination attempts have been reported in recent years even though dozens of North Korean defectors have started traveling to and settling in the U.S.
(Yonhap)