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On July 12, 2022, the Ministry of Unification released the above photo along with others that had been taken on Nov. 11, 2019, of the repatriation of two fishers to North Korea. The individual in tennis shoes and blue and black jacket is one of the fishers. (provided by the MOU)

Under the Yoon Suk-yeol administration, recent actions by the Ministry of Unification (MOU), which reversed its official opinion on the November 2019 repatriation of two North Korean fishers who killed 16 of their fellow crew members, have prompted a growing outcry from its own staff.

The MOU chapter of the State Public Officials’ Labor Union posted a message on the MOU internal bulletin board Tuesday expressing concerns about the reversal of the existing position on the repatriation.

The message stressed that the ministry should establish its “proper role and function as a key office for inter-Korean relations” rather than being used as a “tool for political conflict.”

In a statement titled “The Ministry of Unification is the Ministry of Unification,” the MOU union noted that the ministry “reported in detail to the National Assembly about its decision-making process in connection with the repatriation at the time [in November 2019], and neither the ruling nor the opposition parties had raised any issues about the decision.”

“We can only wonder if there has been some change in the situation to warrant reviewing the existing decision at this point,” it continued.

It went on to stress that the matter was “not simply an issue of reversing a position,” warning that it would “have a negative effect on the pursuit of consistent and credible unification policies going forward.”

In its explanation of the repatriation decision in November 2019, the MOU said that it questioned the sincerity of the fishers’ intent to defect and had made the decision to “expel North Korean residents who were guilty of heinous crimes.”

But on July 11, it changed its position and declared that the repatriation had been wrong, explaining that the “defected North Koreans are acknowledged as citizens of the Republic of Korea under the Constitution.” It also released still photographs and video footage from the scene of their repatriation.

“You have to wonder if this is what they had in mind when they sent a wily politician like Kwon Young-se to serve as minister of unification,” said one MOU official on Wednesday, adding that they were “concerned about how we’re going to cope with the aftermath.”

Another official said, “I feel embarrassed and at a loss for words when people I know ask me whether the MOU is going to change its stance again under a new administration and a new minister.”

As the objections within the MOU intensified, Vice Minister Kim Ki-woong called an online meeting of all staff on Tuesday afternoon. Though the stated purpose was “communication,” the hour-long meeting was more of a request for the employees to keep quiet.

Meanwhile, Kim Byung-joo, a lawmaker who heads the Democratic Party’s task force on the 2020 shooting death of a South Korean government employee in the West Sea, met with reporters after a visit to the MOU the same day.

“The reversal of the Ministry of Unification’s position was based on the personal and policy-based determinations and orders of the minister and vice minister,” he said.

“It has been confirmed that there was no reexamination of related materials from the relevant agencies, including a joint questioning report, nor was there any drafting of an internal meeting and reexamination report,” he added.

By Lee Je-hun, senior staff writer

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