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.
This drug bust sure isn’t going to help the already poor image that many South Koreans hold of North Korean defectors living in South Korea. Of interest is that apparently much of the meth was used by other North Korean defectors which is an indication of the large drug problem in North Korea that has been reported on before. Just think after unification South Korea will have to deal with an entire country that could be hooked on drugs:
A group of more than 20 North Korean defectors and ethnic Korean-Chinese people have been indicted here on charges of smuggling methamphetamine believed to be produced in the North into South Korea for sale or personal consumption, South Korean prosecutors said on Sunday, noting they have found circumstantial evidence of North Korean residents’ involvement in the crime.
The Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office said it has indicted a total of 23 suspects, including North Korean defectors living here and ethnic Koreans in China, with or without detention for smuggling the illegal drug into South Korea and seized about 810.7 grams of meth, or 27,000 doses. Meth, which can trigger side effects such as paranoia, hallucinations, delirium and delusions, is banned in South Korea.
All told, 16 North Korean defectors were referred to trial. [Yonhap]
I would not be surprised if this was North Korean payback for restaurant defections that happened last month. If this was a murder by the North Koreans I wonder what the Chinese reaction will be to Kim regime agents murdering Chinese citizens?:
An ethnic Korean clergyman with Chinese nationality has been found dead in a northeastern Chinese town close to the border with North Korea, a North Korea watcher said on Sunday, raising suspicions that the North could possibly be involved in his death.
The body of the priest, identified by his surname Han and known for his activities in support of North Korean defectors, was found Saturday afternoon, the watcher said, speculating that he may have been murdered.
Chinese police have immediately launched a probe into Han’s death.
Han is known for serving at Changbai Church in Changbai County, Jilin Province, a region that is populated by the Chaoxian people, or ethnic Koreans living in China.
“Han had been active in supporting North Korean defectors,” the watcher said. “Murder seems the most likely cause of his death.” [Yonhap]
This is an interesting development in the defector restaurant worker issue. The North Koreans are willing to send the families of the defectors to Seoul. I would assume that not all of their families would go and the ones sent would be risking the death of the families members staying behind if they too defected. I would also think these family members would be under strict instructions to try and convince the defectors to come back to North Korea. The ROK authorities probably understand this and this is why they denied North Korea’s request:
North Korea has notified Seoul of its plans to send family members of the restaurant workers who defected earlier in the month to South Korea, the country’s state-run news agency said Friday.
A group of 13 North Korean people defected from the same Pyongyang-run restaurant in China and came to South Korea in early April in what has become a steady stream of people leaving the isolated country.
North Korea has consistently claimed South Korea abducted the workers and demanded that they be returned to their loved ones at once. Pyongyang also threatened to take strong action against the South if its demands are not met.
“The families of the abductees are eagerly asking for face-to-face contact with their daughters as they were forced to part from their beloved daughters,” said the notification sent to South Korea by Ri Chung-bok, chairman of North Korea’s Red Cross.
The notification was carried by the North’s Korean Central News Agency.
“At their earnest requests, our side again seriously notifies your side of our decision to send them to Seoul via Panmunjom (a truce village),” it showed.
South Korea should not conceal the unethical crime under the pretext of “international practice,” but should take “immediate technical measures” for the families to reunite with the defectors, the letter said.
South Korea’s Unification Ministry refused the demand, however, saying in a press release after the report that “The latest group defection by the workers at a overseas North Korean restaurant was completely of their own free will.”
A ministry official also said the South Korean government has not received any official notification letter from North Korea on the matter of sending the family members of the defectors to Seoul. [Yonhap]
The Kim regime must be pretty embarrassed by the recent mass defection of 13 overseas restaurant workers because they are continuing to make the claim that they were all kidnapped:
In the video, the North Koreans are seen demanding the immediate repatriation of the defectors.
The defections are being labeled as an operation of the “treasonous clique of [South Korean President] Park Geun-hye,” and the two videos feature various North Koreans: restaurant workers, a student and a party cadre.
One interviewee condemned the South Korean puppets for “kidnapping our people 10 at a time,” adding “the [South Korean] presidential Blue House, the devil’s lair, should be destroyed and our people delivered as soon as possible.”
On April 7, North Koreans – a man and 12 women – had arrived in the South after they sought asylum at Seoul’s embassy in Bangkok.
North Korea has slammed Seoul, claiming South Korea “dragged” the North Koreans to a “Southeast Asian country.” [UPI]
This undated photo shows a passport and Chinese documents held by one of the 13 North Korean restaurant workers stationed in China who participated in a successful group defection to South Korea last week. The photo, taken and kept by the restaurant operator, shows that the passport is marked as being for official use, as is commonly issued to North Koreans sent abroad to work. The document shows a foreigner’s registration of resident address in China. China’s foreign ministry had said that the defectors left the country carrying valid passports. (Yonhap)
Considering that this defection did happen a year ago it does seem like a legitimate question to ask if this had any political motivations:
A North Korean military intelligence officer has defected to South Korea, the South’s Unification Ministry announced on Monday. While declining to give details, ministry spokesman Jeong Joon-hee confirmed the man is a colonel and called the defection “meaningful.” He is believed to be one of the highest-ranking North Koreans to defect to the South.
Jeong said the defection could be read as a sign of fissure at the top levels of North Korea’s regime.
The announcement comes just days after South Korea said that 13 North Koreans who worked at a state-run restaurant defected en masse last week. Chinese officials confirmed Monday that the North Koreans were working in China, that they left China April 6 and that they were North Korean passport holders.
It is unclear when the high-ranking military official defected to the South. Defectors are often questioned and debriefed for months before news of their defections is publicly announced. In this case, South Korean news wire Yonhap reports the official defected sometime last year, which immediately sparked criticism that the government’s announcement is politically motivated: South Koreans go to the polls in parliamentary elections this week, and previous governments have similarly been accused of trying to influence elections with conveniently-timed announcements. [NPR]
I guess we will see if the mass defection of 13 overseas workers from a North Korean restaurant will become a trend or not. I would think the regime after this defection would really tighten the controls on their overseas workers by threatening their families back in North Korea:
Future mass defection by North Koreans working abroad cannot be ruled out following the recent escape of 13 people, South Korea’s unification ministry said Sunday.
Speaking to reporters, a ministry official explained that considerable pressure to send back hard currency to Pyongyang in the face of tough United Nations sanctions played a part in the restaurant workers’ defection.
The government hinted earlier that the defectors were fearful that they would be punished if they were unable to send back money to North Korea. Many restaurants have been forced to close due to a drop in patrons, with estimates placing roughly half of them unable to send money back to the North.
The official who spoke on condition of anonymity, said one restaurant serving staff testified that with tough sanctions taking hold, people felt there was no hope for the North Korean regime.
He said a second worker confirmed she watched South Korean TV dramas and knew about life in the South, while another said she realized what happiness was really like while living abroad, and did not want to go back to the North.
“They expressed a desire to live their lives as South Koreans and believed the joint action was their last chance to get away from the North,” the official said. He added the defectors had Internet connection to the outside world, which is not possible inside their isolationist homeland.
“Such information (about the world at large) caused them to crave freedom,” the official claimed. [Yonhap]
