Via a reader tip comes the below article about how a progressive legal team is trying to gain access to the 13 North Korean restaurant workers that defected to South Korea:
North Korean defectors arriving in the South on April 7. The defectors in custody have not had contact with legal counsel, according to a group of South Korean attorneys. File Photo courtesy of Republic of Korea Ministry of Unification
A progressive South Korean legal organization has been denied access to the 13 North Korean defectors who fled a state-run restaurant in China.
Lawyers for a Democratic Society had requested interviews with the North Korean waitresses and their manager, but after being rejected at the defector custody center is planning to take legal action, Yonhap reported.
During a press conference Monday, the lawyers said they were told by an intelligence official that access was not allowed because the “North Korean workers had entered South Korea out of their own free will.”
“If that is correct, the government must grant them their right to counsel,” the lawyers told reporters. [UPI]
You can read the rest at the link, but it is likely that the ROK intelligence officers are concerned that the lawyers like some other progressive groups in South Korea are influenced by North Korean handlers. The Kim regime has been launching a vigorous propaganda campaign against the defectors and I would not put it past them to use these lawyers to pass messages about how their family members are being threatened back in North Korea by their defection and to come back.
it is likely that the ROK intelligence officers are concerned that the lawyers like some other progressive groups in South Korea are influenced by North Korean handlers.
It’s not really something they have to be concerned with because other than those who work there, no one gets access to Hanawon.
Hanawon imposes heavy restrictions on the travel of North Korean defectors because of security concerns. In addition, security is tight with barbed wire, security guards, and cameras. The threat of kidnap or physical attacks against individual defectors by North Korean agents is ever-present.
@Guitard, the progressives are using these lawyers as a work around to get access to these defectors. The only reason I can think of that they are working so hard to get access to these particular defectors and not other defectors is because they have messages they want to pass to them from North Korea.
guitard
8 years ago
What I’m saying is that there are no work arounds in this case. It’s like showing up at the White House fence demanding to speak with the POTUS – and when you get denied, claiming that you’ve been denied your constitutional right to speak with an elected official.
I’m certain these lawyers know that no one gets into Hanawon. And they very likely don’t have any message to pass on to the restaurant workers because they knew all along they would never get access to them. So this ploy of saying, “the government must grant them their right to counsel,” is all a straw man charade.
It’s not really something they have to be concerned with because other than those who work there, no one gets access to Hanawon.
From: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanawon
@Guitard, the progressives are using these lawyers as a work around to get access to these defectors. The only reason I can think of that they are working so hard to get access to these particular defectors and not other defectors is because they have messages they want to pass to them from North Korea.
What I’m saying is that there are no work arounds in this case. It’s like showing up at the White House fence demanding to speak with the POTUS – and when you get denied, claiming that you’ve been denied your constitutional right to speak with an elected official.
I’m certain these lawyers know that no one gets into Hanawon. And they very likely don’t have any message to pass on to the restaurant workers because they knew all along they would never get access to them. So this ploy of saying, “the government must grant them their right to counsel,” is all a straw man charade.