South Korea Probes Deportation of Two North Koreans to Pyongyang

Wall Street Journal ^ | July 13, 2022 10:43 am ET | Dasl Yoon

[Zhang Fei]

The two North Korean fishermen were captured near the eastern sea border after their boat drifted into South Korean waters. They confessed to killing 16 fellow crew members and expressed a desire to defect, the South Korean government said at the time. The Moon administration said then that the men’s intentions to defect were insincere given their murder confessions—and deported them five days after taking them into custody.

North Korean defectors, upon arriving in South Korea, are typically held for up to a month for a period of investigation and debriefing with Seoul’s intelligence officials.

Human rights groups said the swift deportation denied their right to a fair trial.

Mr. Moon couldn’t be reached immediately for comment but his party defended the repatriation decision as legal. The fishermen hadn’t willingly defected to the South, but had been captured while fleeing, Kim Byung-joo, a Democratic Party lawmaker from Mr. Moon’s party, said during a Wednesday press conference. “The law states that protection may not be extended to nonpolitical criminals,” he said.

South Korea’s spy agency filed a criminal complaint last week against Suh Hoon, who was the chief intelligence official when the repatriation occurred. In the complaint, the spy agency accused the official of falsifying documents and ordering a premature end to an internal probe of the deportation. Mr. Suh couldn’t be reached, though recently said he would participate in any investigation.

On Wednesday, prosecutors raided the state intelligence agency, seizing documents, as part of the investigation.

The photos released by the unification ministry were “shocking and cruel,” said Ji Seong-ho, a defector-turned-lawmaker for Mr. Yoon’s conservative People Power Party. “The Moon administration knew the fishermen would be tortured and killed brutally if they were returned, yet they set precedent instilling fear in North Korean defectors.”

[HYPOCRACY]

Murdered 16 crew? I’d send em back too.

[DesertRhino]

They probably had to kill those others to make their escape. They will be executed.
On the other hand, the South is extremely good at ferreting out fake defectors. The north might have sent them, and the South probably sniffed that out.

[fidelis]

The fishermen hadn’t willingly defected to the South, but had been captured while fleeing, Kim Byung-joo, a Democratic Party lawmaker from Mr. Moon’s party, said during a Wednesday press conference. “The law states that protection may not be extended to nonpolitical criminals,” he said.

Yeah, they probably shouldn’t of oughta done that.

[familyop]

Apparently, Korean security is sometimes very complicated.

[Mark17]

They probably had to kill those others to make their escape. They will be executed.

They are probably already dead.

[SunkenCiv]

...two North Korean fishermen were captured near the eastern sea border after their boat drifted into South Korean waters. They confessed to killing 16 fellow crew members and expressed a desire to defect, the South Korean government said at the time. The Moon administration said then that the men’s intentions to defect were insincere given their murder confessions—and deported them five days after taking them into custody. North Korean defectors, upon arriving in South Korea, are typically held for up to a month for a period of investigation and debriefing with Seoul’s intelligence officials... South Korea’s spy agency filed a criminal complaint last week against Suh Hoon, who was the chief intelligence official when the repatriation occurred... On Wednesday, prosecutors raided the state intelligence agency, seizing documents, as part of the investigation.