hankyoreh

North Korea has still not released a Hyundai Asan employee in the Kaesong (Gaeseong) Industrial Park whom it has detained since March 30. The situation looks like it could become a drawn-out affair, comparable to the situation with the two U.S. journalists arrested while reporting on North Korean defectors, who have been held for two weeks.

According to a message sent by North Korean authorities on the day of the employee‘s arrest, the individual is accused of criticizing the Pyongyang government and encouraging (“yuin) a North Korean employee to defect. Officials indicate that although South Korea will know what exactly transpired after North Korea releases the results of their investigation; it is clearly in the wrong for not permitting access to the individual at this time.

North Korea says it has the right to detain and question the South Korean employee based on the inter-Korea agreement regarding entering and sojourning in the Kaesong Industrial Complex and Mount Keumgang Tourism Zone, but even according to that document the accused cannot be denied his basic rights, for example the right to counsel and access to proper officials. Something is clearly wrong here when the only thing that can be done is to wait for North Korea’s next move. Everyone who looks at the situation will agree that North Korea must question and hold this individual in a manner that is transparent and impartial.

It will hurt the stability of the Kaesong enterprise if North Korea handles this case arbitrarily. North Korea already hurt operations at Kaesong last month, when it prevented South Koreans from traveling between Kaesong and South Korea in response to joint US-South Korea military exercises. As a result, Pyongyang set a precedent threatening this model of inter-Korean economic cooperation for political and military reasons. To now have South Korean residents‘ personal safety be an issue is something that will only make employees and investors nervous.

Channels of dialogue between North and South have broken down, making it difficult to resolve the situation. The two sides have many agreements between them, however, they are not useful for outlining how to respond effectively in practice. Government officials on both sides need to play the role of filling in those gaps, but that is difficult when relations go sour. In order to prevent that from happening, there needs to be some basic trust and existing channels for dialogue. Right now our government does not even know what North Korea’s real motives are.

This latest situation does not appear to be connected to the matter of the ”satellite“ launch. North Korea should quickly release this South Korean employee in order to avoid any unnecessary misunderstanding. If instead, it chooses to further detain this individual, an intention communicated through a fax message, it will fuel suspicions that North Korea intends to use this employee as collateral for negotiations following the launch.

Please direct questions or comments to [englishhani@hani.co.kr]