Amnesty International blasts 2019 repatriations

North Korea

Published: 14 Jul. 2022, 18:30

Amnesty International blasts 2019 repatriations

A participant in a North Korean human rights group's demonstration in front of the National Assembly on Wednesday holds up a photo of one of the two fishermen being repatriated to the North at Panmunjom in November 2019. [YONHAP]

Amnesty International blasted the 2019 repatriation of two North Korean fishermen as a violation of international law and called on the Seoul to prevent a recurrence.

Photos of the two fishermen dragging their feet and resisting their return to the North at the truce village of Panmunjom on the inter-Korean border in Nov. 2019 were released by Seoul’s unification ministry on Tuesday afternoon, sparking outrage from North Korean human rights and defectors’ groups.

Amnesty said Thursday that the North Korean fishermen “were denied the right to a fair trial,” and that “the decision to send them back to North Korea violated the principle of non-refoulement,” according to Voice of America (VOA).

According to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, the principle of non-refoulement “guarantees that no one should be returned to a country where they would face torture, cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment and other irreparable harm.”

Amnesty also said that “a guarantee of non-reoccurrence should be ensured by the South Korean government.”

The fishermen were captured by the South Korean Navy after crossing the inter-Korean maritime border in the East Sea on Nov. 2, 2019, and returned via Panmunjom five days later.

The Moon administration said the pair was not entitled to South Korean protection because they did not express a desire to defect and had murdered 16 fellow crew members aboard their fishing vessel, including the captain, before crossing south.

The ruling People Power Party (PPP) said it will pursue an investigation into the Moon Jae-in administration’s handling of the case by pushing for a special counsel probe in the National Assembly.

The opposition Democratic Party (DP) has defended the Moon administration’s decision to repatriate the fishermen, calling them “vicious criminals” who “were captured in the process of fleeing the North Korean authorities” after murdering their crew.

The DP cited Article 9 of the North Korean Defectors’ Act, which stipulates that escapees “who commit murder and other non-political crimes may be excluded from protection,” as justification for the Moon administration’s decision.

The PPP and human rights groups have criticized the DP’s interpretation of the law, saying such a reading violates the South Korean constitution, which considers North Koreans who escape to be South Korean citizens, as well as the legal principle of “innocent until proven guilty.”

Speaking to reporters at the National Assembly on Wednesday, Unification Minister Kwon Young-se said, “Even if one is suspected of committing murder or a felony, there is a principle of presumption of innocence until guilt is confirmed through judicial system.

“It was a clear mistake to deport [the fishermen] to the North after only a brief administrative investigation,” he added.

BY MICHAEL LEE [lee.junhyuk@joongang.co.kr]