Over the course of his nearly four and half years in office, President Moon Jae-in has persistently called for peace on the Korean Peninsula. One thing he never mentioned was the well-being of South Korean citizens detained in North Korea, not to mention South Korean prisoners of war held captive by the dictatorship for more than seven decades. Moon appears to have abandoned them to their fate – death.
Shamefully, this issue has disappeared from South Korean politics ahead of the upcoming presidential election in March. Instead, international human rights groups are the ones calling for President Moon to work on getting his citizens back from North Korea.
Phil Robertson, Deputy Director of Human Rights Watch’s Asia Division, sent a statement to the Voice of America on Thursday that criticized Moon for the unclear fate of the South Korean citizens detained in the North. “By essentially ignoring South Koreans detained in the North, the Blue House has failed a moral test to protect its nationals and ensure their human rights are upheld,” he said. “The way the South Korean government has looked the other way on the plight of South Koreans in the North is both outrageous and unacceptable.”
Robertson argued that Moon has given up on this important issue to only focus on his so-called Korean Peninsula peace process. “There should be mass campaigns to demand these individuals’ freedom, with the South Korean government playing an important part, but instead there is only silence,” he added. “This is truly shocking and shows the compromises on human rights that the South Korean government has made to futilely try to re-start dialogue with the North.”
He continued, “President Moon Jae-in should change course, and speak out publicly for the release of these South Koreans without any strings attached and make it clear that abductions and human rights issues will be part of any North-South dialogues going forward in the future.”
Robertson continued to criticize President Moon for taking the wrong political approach. “President Moon apparently thinks that looking the other way on North Korean rights abuses, and ignoring the plight of South Koreans held in the North, will somehow magically get Kim Jong-un to do what the South Korean government wants,” he said. “Instead, President Moon’s lack of strategy, and willingness to bend over backwards to accommodate the North, apparently has resulted in the powers that be in Pyongyang believing they can treat the Southern leader with contempt.”
Currently, there are three South Korean missionaries officially confirmed to be detained in North Korea. Missionary Kim Jung-wook has been detained there for over 8 years after he was arrested for illegally entering the North on October 8, 2013. North Korea sentenced him to hard labor for life after charging him with espionage and an attempt to overthrow the government by collaborating with the South Korean National Intelligence Service. Other missionaries such as Kim Kuk-ki and Choi Choon-kil were arrested in 2014 and were also sentenced to hard labor for life. There also are three North Korean defectors, including Ko Hyun-chul, who were arrested again and detained in the North. South Korean law treats a North Korean defector, who defected to the South, as a citizen.
While there are arguments both from home and abroad calling for an official end to the Korean War and a signing of a peace treaty, some human rights experts pointed out that humanitarian and basic human rights issues should be resolved beforehand.
“One cannot talk peace declarations, peace treaties, reconciliation, rapprochement while South Korean citizens are still being held in North Korea,” said Greg Scarlatoiu, the Executive Director of the Committee for Human Rights in North Korea (HRNK), who told the Voice of America in an article published on Friday. “Can you imagine an American President going to a foreign country and talking about rapprochement in diplomatic contacts and humanitarian aid, while the respective country is holding American citizens hostage? That would be unthinkable, and that President would have to pay a very heavy political price.”
He continued as follows:
“President Moon has placed all of his bets on the Kim Jong-un card, things are not going well, the South Korean government and senior South Korean government officials are simply paralyzed by this fundamental strategic mistake they made. They gave up all leverage, they placed their fate in the hands of Kim Jong-un and his regime.”
Ambassador Robert King, who served as the United States special envoy for North Korean Human Rights Issues, argued that President Moon’s policy has become a barrier to solving the South Korean detainee issue. “Moon is very anxious to develop a relationship with the North,” he said. “There has been all kinds of bending over backwards to try to accommodate the North Korean demands. And I think for Moon, he does not want to get into the issue of South Koreans in North Korea because it might irritate this very fragile relationship that he’s trying to build on.”
Suzanne Scholte, an American human rights activist and the president of the Defense Forum Foundation, also told the VOA that President Moon should speak out about this issue. “We always say silence is death. If you don’t advocate and talk about these things, silence is death,” she said. “So, it is absolutely appropriate that the government of South Korea ask for their release and continue to bring their names before the North Koreans in any bilateral talks.”
Meanwhile, a spokesperson from the U.S. Department of State gave the following comment to the VOA regarding on the issue:
“We remain concerned about the human rights situation in the DPRK and the United States is committed to placing human rights at the center of our foreign policy.”
If South Korea and the United States do not speak up, these citizens may never come home.
