hankyoreh

By Kim Kyu-won, staff writer
When G came to South Korea from North Korea last year, he didn’t tell anyone: not his family, not his friends and not his colleagues. He did this for their safety. He hoped desperately that his journey out of the North and to the South would be treated as another missing person case, something that occurs frequently in the North.
These hopes were soon dashed. An article about G’s defection was published in the Chosun Ilbo newspaper and his family has since disappeared. The paper ran two articles on him: one seven days after his interrogation by the National Intelligence Service (NIS) at the South’s main facility for newly arrived defectors, and another after 15 days. G’s interrogation lasted two months, and was reported from its early stages by the Chosun Ilbo.
As they began the interrogation, the NIS agents told him to give the best answers he could, and promised his personal information would be protected. G was totally isolated from for almost five months as he was interrogated by the NIS, the Ministry of National Defense (MND) and received education at Hanawon (the institution that trains North Korea defectors to adapt to life in the South). During his interrogation by the NIS and the MND, in particular, he came into contact with no one but his investigators.
After completing his course at Hanawon, G, consumed with worry, telephoned his parents in North Korea, by way of a third party pretending to be a friend. As they had heard of his defection to the South, his parents cried as they told him their situation: the North Korean State Security Department (SSD) was calling each of G’s family members one by one for questioning, and believed that G had gone to South Korea. When he attempted a second phone call a fortnight later, G failed to get through. An acquaintance from his neighborhood told him that his whole family had suddenly disappeared not long ago.
G believes his family has been taken to a prison or detention camp. He knows that in North Korea, if it is believed that a family member has fled to the South, it is normal for their family to be placed under surveillance in their hometown or taken to a prison or detention camp.
After learning of his family’s painful situation, G immediately protested to the NIS and the Chosun Ilbo. The NIS neither put him in contact with his investigators nor apologized. Another NIS employee explained, “It seems to have happened within the scope of the job.”
An NIS spokesperson, however, told the Hankyoreh, “According to internal rules, not a single piece of information learned through questioning at the central processing facility can be leaked to the media. If a leak occurs, [the person responsible] would of course be punished.”
The Chosun reporter to whom G protested, said, “I cannot take the view that harm of that kind was caused by the article.” G, however, believes that information in the two articles made it clear that he had defected to the South, and that his family has been questioned and taken away by the SSD.
An NIS spokesperson stated, “After confirming the facts, we believe the leak occurred not through the NIS but via a different route, while G was being transferred to the central processing facility.” The Chosun Ilbo reporter who wrote the articles said, “This was the first time the method of defection from North Korea had been revealed, so I wrote the article in order to make known the desperate plight of the people of North Korea. I could not have foreseen that [G’s] family would be harmed, and I am sorry if that’s what happened.”
　
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