PPP to push for parliamentary investigation, special prosecution on repatriation of N. Korean fishermen

Jul 15, 2022, 07:56 am

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Rep. Kweon Seong-dong, the ruling People Power Party’s acting chief, speaks during a party meeting held at the National Assembly on July 14, 2022./ Photographed by Lee Byung-hwa

AsiaToday reporter Lee Wook-jae

The ruling People Power Party (PPP) is seeking to launch a parliamentary investigation or special prosecution into the previous administration’s repatriation of North Korean fishermen in 2019.

The move comes after the presidential office called the incident under the Moon Jae-in administration a “criminal act”.

“We will review specific measures such as a parliamentary investigation and special prosecution regarding the repatriation,” Rep. Kweon Seong-dong, the PPP’s acting chief, said during a party meeting. “We will reveal the truth of the case where people’s lives were used for political power. There should be no separate opposition and ruling parties when dealing about human rights,” he said. “But the main opposition Democratic Party (DP) still defines the North Korean fishermen as brutal criminals, and insists that forced repatriation was right thing to do. The source of the claim that the North Korean fishermen are murderers is the North. We should have verified the credibility of North Korea’s claim the fishermen were murderers.”

“The North Koreans showed a desire to defect when they were captured, and wrote a letter of intent to defect during the investigation process. They are citizens of South Korea under the Constitution,” he said. “Nevertheless, the Moon Jae-in administration ignored the law and decided on the repatriation claiming their intentions were insincere. They handled human rights and laws arbitrarily.”

Kweon held former President Moon Jae-in accountable for the case. “In 1999, by-then lawyer Moon Jae-in defended Chinese crew members who brutally killed their shipmates, including some South Koreans, aboard the Pesca Mar. Moon said we should embrace them,” he said. “In 2019, the Moon Jae-in administration defined the North Korean defectors as murderers and forcibly sent them back to the North. Who is the real, the human rights lawyer or the president?”

Chung Mi-kyung, a member of the PPP’s supreme council, pointed out there is no evidence for the killing. “They were forcibly repatriated and were executed in the North. Who would be responsible if they were framed as murderers.”

The international community has raised a voice of criticism. The U.S. state-owned Voice of America (VOA) reported that international human rights group Amnesty International criticized the Moon government’s decision, saying it violated ‘the principle of non-refoulement’. “The North Korean fishermen were denied their right to a fair trial,” Amnesty International said. “A guarantee of non-reoccurrence should be ensured by the South Korean government,” it added.

The principle of non-refoulement in international law states 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. It is included in the Treaty of the Status of Refugees signed in Geneva, Switzerland in 1951.

The George W. Bush Institute said “the forcible repatriation was immoral, inhumane, and unlawful.”

#PPP #parliamentary investigation #special prosecution #North Korean fishermen #defectors