Parties clash over forced repatriation of North Korean fishermen

Ruling People Power Party floor leader and acting Chairman Rep. Kweon Seong-dong, left, speaks during the party's Supreme Council meeting at the National Assembly on Yeouido, Seoul, Thursday. Joint Press Corps

Opposition lawmakers accuse Yoon gov't and ruling party of politicizing the incident to demonize their predecessors

By Nam Hyun-woo

The previous Moon Jae-in administration's 2019 repatriation of two North Korean fishermen back to the North has become a major political fray between the ruling and opposition blocs.

While the presidential office and the ruling People Power Party (PPP) are ratcheting up their efforts to attack the previous Moon government for its "inhumane" treatment of the defectors, members of the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) repeated the claims that the fishermen were criminals and accused the ruling block of trying to politicize the incident.

Rep. Kweon Seong-dong, floor leader and acting chairman of the People Power Party (PPP), said Thursday the party will push for an investigation or introduce an independent counsel to look into the case.

"A day earlier, the presidential office defined that the Moon administration's repatriation was a crime against humanity which violated the Constitution and international laws," Rep. Kweon said during the party's Supreme Council meeting.

"The DPK is still describing the fishermen as brutal murderers, claiming the repatriation was appropriate, but this is based on North Korea's explanation," Kweon said. "They should have verified the explanation."

A North Korean fisherman is held by South Korean officials before being handed over to North Korea at the inter-Korean truce village of Panmunjom, in this Nov. 7, 2019, file photo. Courtesy of Ministry of Unification

A day earlier, presidential spokesperson Kang In-sun said the repatriation was a human rights violation and the Yoon government will spare no efforts to find "the truth behind this case in order to restore the universal values of freedom and human rights."

The ruling bloc's condemnations came after the Ministry of Unification on Tuesday released 10 photos of the North Koreans fiercely resisting their deportation across the inter-Korean border in November 2019. At the time, the Moon government decided not to accept the fishermen's request for asylum, claiming they had conspired with a third man to kill 16 fellow fishermen before their escape to South Korea across the Northern Limit Line ― the de facto maritime border between the two Koreas.

The photos created political repercussions both domestically and internationally, with U.S. Congressman Chris Smith saying the photos of the fishermen being physically forced to return to the North against their will and without due process of law were "painful to view."

The deportation became a subject of heated debate, as the ruling conservative bloc raised suspicions that the Moon administration decided to send the fishermen back to the North as a "present" to invite North Korean leader Kim Jong-un to the 2019 South Korea-ASEAN summit in Busan.

"It was an outcome of the Moon administration's efforts to curry favor with the North Korean regime, and was a major manipulation of national security," PPP Rep. Ahn Cheol-soo wrote on Facebook, Thursday.

"Despite the fishermen's intention to defect to the South, they were deported to North Korea just three days after their capture, and Cheong Wa Dae (the previous presidential office) sent North Korea's Kim an invitation to the ASEAN summit."

Ahn continued that the Constitution states North Koreans have the right to South Korean citizenship and all related legal rights, as soon as they enter South Korean territory. The Constitution recognizes the entire Korean Peninsula and outlying islands as the country's territory, thus does not recognize North Korea as a legitimate nation.

Main opposition Democratic Party of Korea interim chief Woo Sang-ho speaks during a party meeting at the National Assembly on Yeouido, Seoul, Thursday. Joint Press Corps

The opposition party, however, is refuting the criticisms, saying the fishermen were murderers who posed a grave threat to South Korea's legal system.

"The North Koreans were clearly brutal criminals who murdered 16 fellow North Koreans, and they were attempting to escape to other regions, not South Korea," DPK interim chief Rep. Woo Sang-ho said during a radio interview with YTN, Thursday. "Even though the Moon administration extradited criminals to the North because their intention to request asylum was in doubt, the PPP keeps questioning this."

Woo added the Yoon administration is using the repatriation case to overshadow the president's faltering job approval rating. The latest surveys showed that Yoon's job approval rating remains below 40 percent, only two months into his presidency.

"Yoon's job approval rating continues to decline," he said. "To recover it, the government should focus on people's livelihoods and the economy, not the previous administration."

DPK Rep. Youn Kun-young, who was director for Cheong Wa Dae's State Affairs Planning and Monitoring Office in 2019, also said in a radio interview with CBS that "the sincerity of their intention to defect to South Korea was highly in doubt" because they "had been fleeing from the South Korean military for two days before being captured."

Park Soo-hyun, senior presidential secretary for public communication under the Moon administration, wrote on Facebook that the Navy's special operations team captured the fishermen after firing warning shots, and it is impossible to describe them as refugees.

"Just days after the unification ministry announced that the repatriation was wrong and revealed the photos on July 12, the (Yoon's) presidential office labeled it as a crime against humanity, with the prosecution launching a probe of the National Intelligence Service," Park wrote. "It seems to be a plot that already has a certain target and goal."

Seoul's North Korean Refugees Protection and Settlement Support Act states that offenders of serious crimes, such as murder, are not designated as eligible for government protection, such as subsidies. However, this does not necessarily means that the government should exile North Korean offenders.

Due to this, the unification ministry said on Thursday, "It is difficult to apply this law as legal grounds for the 2019 repatriation," adding there are 23 North Korean living in South Korea who defected after committing serious crimes.