N.Korean defectors report difficulties under Lee government

Posted on : 2010-11-15 15:54 KST Modified on : 2010-11-15 15:54 KST
Defectors have been questioned for much longer time and increased scapegoating under the Lee government

By Lee Je-hoon, Staff Writer

 

The number of North Koreans who have entered South Korea has now passed the 20 thousand mark. In 1999, the number of North Korean defectors settling in South Korea passed one thousand for the first time, and in 2007, the number stood at 10 thousand. In the space of a little over three years, that figure has doubled once again. This dramatic increase foreshadows the possibility of North Korean defectors becoming a large-scale minority group within South Korean society. It could be called the “first future” for North Korean defectors, taking place prior to an eventual reunification between North Korea and South Korea.

On Aug. 28, 2008, the Joint Investigation Headquarters arrested and indicted 36-year-old North Korean defector Won Jeong-hwa on charges of extracting intelligence from military officers she had befriended and passing it to North Korea. The Headquarters called Won a “North Korean State Security Department agent disguised as a defector.” The press plastered its front pages with articles about the “Korean Mata Hari” at a time when the Lee Myung-bak administration was still reeling from the candlelight vigil demonstrations against U.S. beef imports and Lee administration trade policy. Won’s stepfather 65-year-old fellow North Korean defector Kim Dong-sun, was arrested on charges of abetting Won by providing her with goods valued at one billion Won ($888,356). Won subsequently confessed and was sentenced to five years in prison, but Kim was found not guilty in his first and second trials.

Among North Korean defectors, the Won case was seen as an attempt to paint defectors as spies and the beginning of a witch hunt. Indeed, the “female Internet chat spy” announced on May 23, ahead of the June 2 local elections, and the “two-person spy team assigned to kill Hwang Jang-yop” announced on April 22 were all North Korean defectors. The latter spies were subsequently sentenced to time in prison, while the alleged “chat spy” was released.

North Korean defectors who had contacted or sent money to family members with the goal of bringing them to South Korea were concerned that they too could be arrested at any time by security authorities on charges of violating the National Security Law, based on the crime of association and communication with anyone in North Korea.

In a post on his weblog, Dong-A Ilbo journalist Joo Sung-ha, who attended Kim Il-sung University, wrote, “If she had not confessed to sending a few trifling business cards to North Korea, Won Jeong-hwa probably would not have been labeled a spy.” Joo also wrote, “I felt concerned about the future seeing [then Seoul Central District Prosecutor’s Office head] Chun Sung-kwan nominated for prosecutor-general because of his achievement in extracting Won Jeong-hwa’s confession.”

Joo said, “If the security authorities make up their minds to manufacture [spies], North Korean defectors make the easiest prey.”

“A few more espionage cases, and we will be complete scapegoats of McCarthyism,” Joo said.

Article 12, Item 1 of an enforcement decree for the Act on the Protection and Settlement Support of Residents Escaping from North Korea amended and announced on Sept. 27, following the rash of “disguised defector spy” cases, stipulated the period for jointly questioning defectors to South Korea and determining whether to accept them as citizens would be “within 180 days of entry into South Korea.” This was double the length of the previously indicated period.

Private groups and experts expressed vehement objections during the amendment process, but the Unification Ministry ignored the issues raised. In July, Alliance for Monitoring North Korean Defector Policy, a group consisting of the heads of private organizations assisting North Korean defectors in settling in South Korea, submitted an opinion statement to the ministry objecting to the measures, expressing concern about problems with long-term investigations and human rights violations. Of the six “indirectly interested party opinions” submitted by individuals and groups and appended to related materials submitted by the ministry to the Regulatory Reform Committee in August, not one expressed agreement with the amended decree.

At the time, the Unification Ministry claimed that it was not comprehensively increasing all investigation periods, but the joint questioning period, which previously had ordinarily finished in little over a month, increased substantially to 2.5 to 3 months after the amended decree took effect.

“We have to live cooped up in an overseas office or third country safe house for at least two to three months, spend another two to three months being jointly questioned, and then are stuck living at Hanawon for another three months,” a North Korean defector who requested anonymity said Sunday.

“If I had known we would be monitored this long, I would have lived in China, however uncertain that may be,” the defector added. “I would not have come to South Korea.”

Another defector who held a professional position in North Korea said, “Since inter-Korean relations are not going well, the government is playing around with the defectors.”

“In the past, defectors were nearly all Grand National Party supporters, but lately there has been intense criticism of the Lee Myung-bak administration and the GNP,” the defector added.

Meanwhile, a study has found that South Koreans are generally not unwilling to have North Korean defectors as neighbors or co-workers, but are reluctant to have them as business or marriage partners.

According to the findings of a “2010 Unification Consciousness Study” announced on Sept. 7 by Seoul National University’s Institute for Peace and Unification Studies (IPUS), 49.3 percent of the 1,200 adult men and women interviewed nationwide said that they were “not unwilling” to form relationships with North Korean defectors as neighbors. This was more than three times higher than the 15.2 percent who said they were “unwilling.” Similarly, 49.8 percent said they were “not unwilling” to have North Korean defectors as co-workers, far higher than the 16.1 percent who responded that they were “unwilling.”

In contrast, some 1.5 to two times as many answered that were unwilling to form relationships with North Korean defectors as business or marriage partners.

“This suggests that a certain ‘distancing’ will appear between North Koreans and South Koreans in the process of inter-Korean social integration,” said Park Jung-ran, a senior researcher with IPUS.

“We must bear in mind the possibility of conflict spreading, depending upon socioeconomic background,” Park added.

  

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