Posted on 03/30/2009 9:11:55 AM PDT by TigerLikesRooster
South Korean worker held at Kaesong for critical comments
March 31, 2009
A South Korean worker is being interrogated by North Korean authorities at the joint industrial complex at Kaesong for allegedly criticizing the communist country’s political system, the Unification Ministry in Seoul said yesterday.
“We were informed by immigration authorities of the Kaesong Industrial Complex around 11:50 a.m. this morning that a South Korean employee of a company there is being investigated,” said the Unification Ministry’s deputy spokeswoman Lee Jong-ju. “The North claimed that the South Korean worker had criticized the country’s political system, so an investigation is being conducted according to the relevant regulations.”
While Lee refused to identify the detainee, other sources at the ministry said a Hyundai Asan employee was being questioned by the North.
According to the sources, the North claimed that the detainee had “criticized the dignified political regime” and “maneuvered defection of a female worker by corrupting her.”
As of yesterday afternoon, South Korea was not allowed to contact the detainee, sources at the ministry said. Through the Kaesong Industrial Complex management committee, the South Korean government demanded to exercise its right to interview the detainee and provide a legal defense. Whether or not the North will honor the request is unknown.
According to Lee, North Korean authorities cited the inter-Korean agreements governing the two Koreas’ exchanges for the Kaesong complex and Mount Kumgang resort as the grounds for the interrogation. “The North guaranteed the detainee’s health, safety and human rights during the questioning,” Lee said. According to the 2004 inter-Korean accords, the North has the right to investigate a South Korean who has violated laws inside the Kaesong and Kumgang areas.
A violation of North Korean law by a South Korean is punishable by fine or deportation. The Unification Ministry said it is not the first time that a South Korean has been investigated by North Korean authorities, comparing the latest case with the detention of Min Yeong-mi in 1999.
Min, a South Korean housewife, was detained by North Korean authorities during her tour of Mount Kumgang on June 20, 1999. She was accused of urging a North Korean worker in the resort to defect to the South. The North detained her for six days.
At the time, officials of the government and the tour operator, Hyundai Asan, said she was released only after writing a false confession under threat from the North. She had to falsely confess that she was a South Korean agent sent to the North to encourage defection, sources have said.
By Ser Myo-ja, Chae Byung-gun [myoja@joongang.co.kr]
No shortage of human shields for N. Korea.
Ping!
Well, considering North Koreans consider it a human right to eat grass and tree bark, I am not comforted by their assurances.
THat no joke can you say human shield
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