Hyundai worker says confession was ‘coerced’
Published: 26 Aug. 2009, 06:38
A Hyundai Asan worker detained in North Korea for “grave crimes” against the communist regime was forced into making a false confession by his interrogators, the joint investigation team of South Korea’s Unification Ministry and the National Intelligence Service said yesterday.
Yu Song-jin, a 44-year-old engineer at the Kaesong Industrial Complex, was arrested on March 30 by the North Korean authorities. The North claimed that Yu had criticized the political regime of the communist country and encouraged a female worker to defect.
For more than three months, Yu was forced to sit straight up in a chair for 16 hours a day and answer questions, according to the government.
Despite the harsh treatment, the North received about $16,000 from Hyundai Asan to cover Yu’s lodging and meals during his detention.
Hyundai Asan Chairwoman Hyun Jeong-eun won Yu’s release on Aug. 13, 136 days after he was arrested. Upon his return home, Yu was admitted to Asan Medical Center in Seoul and questioned by officials from South Korea’s Unification Ministry and the National Intelligence Service about what had happened in the North.
The joint investigation team said yesterday Yu had sent letters to a female North Korean cleaner at Hyundai Asan’s lodging facility in Kaesong and given her presents. The letters criticized the North’s leader Kim Jong-il and encouraged the cleaner to defect. Yu also asked another North Korean woman to help in locating Yu’s former lover, a North Korean nurse.
The government added that Yu was mainly questioned about a past love affair with the nurse when he was in Libya. Yu was linked to the North Korean woman when he worked in Libya from May 1998 to April 2000, according to the South’s investigative authorities.
However, the South Korean government admitted that Yu violated the inter-Korean accords governing Kaesong Industrial Complex and Mount Kumgang resort.
Yu admitted criticizing the North’s political system while he was in Kaesong, but he denied the North’s claim that the South Korean intelligence authority was behind his attempt to arrange the defection of his lover in Libya.
“Yu, however, was forced to give false testimony. He staged a hunger strike for three days, but was coerced into admitting the North’s argument in his statement on May 15,” the South Korean government said.
According to the government, the North did not use violence against Yu during his detention, but did engage in severe verbal abuse. Throughout his detention, Yu was denied his right to be interviewed in the presence of South Korean officials, the government added.
“Yu violated inter-Korean accords by having relationships with North Korean women, but the North clearly violated the accords and human rights by detaining him for such a long time without allowing visitors,” a South Korean official said.
The North also forced Yu to testify that his detention had been prolonged because he had not cooperated with the probe.
By Ser Myo-ja [[email protected]]
Yu Song-jin, a 44-year-old engineer at the Kaesong Industrial Complex, was arrested on March 30 by the North Korean authorities. The North claimed that Yu had criticized the political regime of the communist country and encouraged a female worker to defect.
For more than three months, Yu was forced to sit straight up in a chair for 16 hours a day and answer questions, according to the government.
Despite the harsh treatment, the North received about $16,000 from Hyundai Asan to cover Yu’s lodging and meals during his detention.
Hyundai Asan Chairwoman Hyun Jeong-eun won Yu’s release on Aug. 13, 136 days after he was arrested. Upon his return home, Yu was admitted to Asan Medical Center in Seoul and questioned by officials from South Korea’s Unification Ministry and the National Intelligence Service about what had happened in the North.
The joint investigation team said yesterday Yu had sent letters to a female North Korean cleaner at Hyundai Asan’s lodging facility in Kaesong and given her presents. The letters criticized the North’s leader Kim Jong-il and encouraged the cleaner to defect. Yu also asked another North Korean woman to help in locating Yu’s former lover, a North Korean nurse.
The government added that Yu was mainly questioned about a past love affair with the nurse when he was in Libya. Yu was linked to the North Korean woman when he worked in Libya from May 1998 to April 2000, according to the South’s investigative authorities.
However, the South Korean government admitted that Yu violated the inter-Korean accords governing Kaesong Industrial Complex and Mount Kumgang resort.
Yu admitted criticizing the North’s political system while he was in Kaesong, but he denied the North’s claim that the South Korean intelligence authority was behind his attempt to arrange the defection of his lover in Libya.
“Yu, however, was forced to give false testimony. He staged a hunger strike for three days, but was coerced into admitting the North’s argument in his statement on May 15,” the South Korean government said.
According to the government, the North did not use violence against Yu during his detention, but did engage in severe verbal abuse. Throughout his detention, Yu was denied his right to be interviewed in the presence of South Korean officials, the government added.
“Yu violated inter-Korean accords by having relationships with North Korean women, but the North clearly violated the accords and human rights by detaining him for such a long time without allowing visitors,” a South Korean official said.
The North also forced Yu to testify that his detention had been prolonged because he had not cooperated with the probe.
By Ser Myo-ja [[email protected]]
with the Korea JoongAng Daily
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