hankyoreh

The family of one of 12 North Korean waitresses stamping a letter granting power of attorney to MINBYUN

A South Korean court has ordered the National Intelligence Service (NIS) to bring 12 North Korean restaurant staff who are staying at the North Korean Defector Protection Center (formerly called the Joint Interrogation Center) to the courtroom to confirm that they actually entered South Korea of their own free will, the Hankyoreh learned on June 14. The staff recently arrived in South Korea from a North Korean restaurant in China, along with a male manager at the restaurant who is not included in the court order. This is the first time that a court has reviewed the legality of detaining North Korean defectors at the North Korean Defector Protection Center.

According to multiple sources in the court and with MINBYUN-Lawyers for a Democratic Society, Hon. Lee Yeong-je, a judge in criminal division No. 32 of the Seoul Central District Court, agreed to hold a hearing on a habeas corpus petition for the 12 defectors on June 21. The judge recently sent a subpoena to the NIS ordering it to allow the 12 defectors to appear in court on that day.

Lawyers with MINBYUN filed a habeas corpus petition for the 12 defectors with the Seoul Central District Court on June 24.

A habeas corpus petition asks the court to guarantee the fundamental rights of individuals who are unfairly detained in a facility against their will or because of an illegal administrative decision.

The families of the 12 North Korean staff - who left a North Korean restaurant in China’s Zhejiang Province on Apr. 5, where they worked as waitresses, and entered South Korea on Apr. 7 - have claimed that the defectors were “enticed and kidnapped” by the South Korean authorities. The NIS argues that they decided to come to South Korea of their own volition.

Last month, MINBYUN asked the NIS to allow the defectors to meet with a lawyer to assess whether their rights had been infringed, but the NIS refused the request.

After that, the defectors’ families in North Korea sent MINBYUN a letter conferring power of attorney. The group said that it received the letter by way of a professor at Tsinghua University in China who is in contact with North Korea. MINBYUN will soon be submitting photos and videos to the court that show family members drawing up the letter of attorney.

“We received the letter of attorney from the families of all 12 defectors,” said Kim Yong-min, an attorney with MINBYUN.

Since the letter of attorney by itself does not prove that MINBYUN has been contacted by the families of the North Korean defectors, there was a good chance that the group‘s habeas corpus petition would be dismissed, but Hon. Lee Yeong-je agreed to hold a hearing about the petition.

On May 31, Lee asked the lawyers to specify the family relationships between the people who are making the habeas corpus petition (the North Korean families) and the people being detained (the 12 North Korean defectors). Reportedly, the judge decided to hold the hearing after reviewing materials that MINBYUN submitted to the court on June 10.

The Habeas Corpus Act states that when a court issues a subpoena, the detaining party must bring the detainee to the court on the date of the hearing.

The NIS has hired attorneys from the law firm Bae, Kim & Lee to represent it in court and to respond to the court order, the Hankyoreh confirmed.

“The NIS has no excuse not to bring the North Korean defectors before the court,” said one source in the government.

“Since North Koreans are in principle also subject to South Korean laws, the Habeas Corpus Act allows lawyers who have been appointed by [the defectors’] families to be their representatives in a habeas corpus petition. But the court will still have to decide whether the MINBYUN lawyers who received the letter of attorney from the defectors’ families can be their legal representatives,” said one court official.

When considering a habeas corpus petition, courts put more weight on the opinion of the detained than on their family members, which makes it hard to predict the outcome of this hearing. The hearing on June 21 will be taking place behind closed doors.

“The defectors must be allowed to testify freely in the court without any NIS agents being present,” MINBYUN said.

By Heo Jae-hyun and Kim Jin-cheol, staff reporter

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