SEOUL (Reuters) – South Korea’s 2019 resolution to deport with out authorized course of two North Korean fishermen suspected of murdering their shipmates violated human rights rules, a U.N. investigator mentioned on Wednesday, after prosecutors reopened the case.
South Korean activists had referred to as on new President Yoon Suk-yeol to reinvestigate the case, blaming the earlier authorities of making an attempt to curry favour with Pyongyang amid denuclearisation negotiations and efforts at rapprochement.
While the destiny of the two males is unconfirmed, there was an expectation their rights could be violated once they have been turned over to North Korean authorities, and due to this fact Seoul had an obligation to course of them in the South Korean justice system reasonably than instantly repatriate them, Tomas Ojea Quintana, U.N. particular rapporteur on human rights in North Korea, informed reporters.
“These are extraordinarily dramatic instances as a result of as soon as an individual is repatriated there isn’t a reversal,” he mentioned. “The (South Korean) authorities shouldn’t have repatriated these individuals straight away.”
Former President Moon Jae-in’s administration deported the fishermen, describing them “harmful criminals” who killed 16 different colleagues aboard their vessel whereas crossing the sea border and mentioned they’d trigger hurt in the event that they have been accepted into South Korean society.
North Korea faces accusations of extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances, torture, arbitrary arrests, sexual violence and compelled labour. It has denied mistreating its residents.
South Korean prosecutors have re-opened the case, Unification Minister Kwon Young-se, who handles relations with the North, informed Reuters on Monday.
An official with the ministry mentioned on Wednesday it will cooperate with the investigation.
Neither Moon, who has stored out of the public eye since leaving workplace, or North Korea has commented on the case.
Quintana was amongst a number of U.N. officers who despatched a letter to Seoul at the time expressing concern and asking for extra info. The officers additionally despatched a letter to Pyongyang.
During this week’s go to to Seoul, Quintana additionally met with the household of a South Korean who went lacking at sea in September 2020 whereas working as a fishing inspector. North Korean authorities later shot him lifeless and set his physique on hearth, surprising many South Koreans and rising cross-border rigidity.
That case has additionally been revisited by the Yoon administration, and final week South Korea’s maritime and army authorities reversed their earlier bulletins and mentioned there have been no indicators the official was making an attempt to defect.
His household had refuted the defection claims, submitting a lawsuit calling for the disclosure of authorities data.
Quintana mentioned he supported the household’s proper to know extra from the South Korean authorities, including that in the end, North Korea was accountable for killing the official, and also needs to disclose info, punish those that shot him, and supply reparations to the household.
North Korean chief Kim Jong Un beforehand made a uncommon apology for the killing, calling it an “unexpected and disgraceful event”, although state media mentioned blame lay with South Korea for not controlling its borders.
(Reporting by Josh Smith; Additional reporting by Soo-hyang Choi; Editing by Lincoln Feast.)
