U.S. to Raise Case of Abducted Pastor at N. Korean Nuke Talks

Yonhap News (South Korea) ^ | February 9, 2005

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WASHINGTON, Feb. 8 (Yonhap) -- The United States will take issue with the kidnapping of a Korean-American pastor by North Korean agents at future six-party talks over Pyongyang's nuclear weapons program, a South Korean interpreter close to the case said Tuesday.

"U.S. State Department officials said they will raise the issue of the abduction of Rev. Kim Dong-shik with the North through various channels, including the six-way talks," said Chang Hak-keun, a South Korean interpreter who assisted Rev. Kim's wife during her visit to the State Department on Tuesday afternoon.

Rev. Kim's wife, Chung Young-hwa, met State Department officials Tuesday afternoon to call for Washington's support in confirming the fate and whereabouts of her husband.

Rev. Kim Dong-shik was abducted by a North Korean kidnapping squad in 2000 in Yanbian, northeastern China, apparently due to his support for North Korean defectors in China.

A Seoul-based civic activist claimed last month that Kim died of an illness in 2001 and was buried in Pyongyang.

If Chang's remarks are confirmed, the U.S. would raise the issue at the fourth round of six-party talks, which involve the two Koreas, the U.S., China, Japan and Russia.

The date of the fourth talks, aimed at resolving North Korea's nuclear ambitions, has not been set. They were originally set for September but the North refused to return to the negotiating table, citing Washington's "hostile" policy toward Pyongyang.

In addition to confirming Rev. Kim's fate, the U.S. also plans to talk with China over its forcible repatriation of North Korean defectors, Chang added.

Recently, the Chinese government its intensified its crackdown on North Korean defectors in China, describing them as illegal migrants who crossed the border for jobs. Organizations in the South which advocate the rights of northern defectors believe there are 300,000 North Koreans living in China with no recognized status.

Human rights investigators at the United Nations such as Vitit Muntarbhorn, the U.N. special rapporteur on the human rights situation in North Korea, have said North Korean defectors are refugees, not illegal migrants, and urged countries such as China to give them shelter.