Comments on: Family of South Korean POWs repatriated to North Korea

By: Maddlew

Maddlew — Mon, 22 Jan 2007 01:09:32 +0000

Where’s Pawi at a time like this? I was thinking that you guys are wrong, that people here do care. Yet there is a notable absence of outrage. Where are all the Korean honks?
Are you so embarrassed that you’re hoping if you ignore it long enough it will all just go away?

By: wjk

wjk — Fri, 19 Jan 2007 23:00:57 +0000

Beware of the Chinese…former American diplomat.

Everything he says is true.

By: Are You NKay? | :: Too Late :: January :: 2007 North Korean Human Rights blogged by a member of Liberty in North Korea

Fri, 19 Jan 2007 21:22:31 +0000

[...] This is the worst feeling for an North Korean human rights activist. I just read this article today (and read about it on The Marmot last night) only to find out that this happened in October and that the refugees may have been returned to North Korea. Worse, it turns out the Korean consulate did a poor job protecting these refugees. There a few lessons to be learned [...]

By: sewing

sewing — Fri, 19 Jan 2007 18:01:25 +0000

The ministry explained, however, that in the case of family members of POWs and abductees, it would be difficult to allow them into diplomatic compounds since they were, under Chinese law, treated as illegal aliens.

As others have pointed out, what a pile of horsesh*t. Under ROK law, they are ROK citizens. South Korean missions in China should allow refugees to stay on their compounds and negotiate with China, insisting that as ROK citizens, if they are illegal aliens in China and should be deported, then they must be deported to South Korea. End of story.

By: Breaktrack

Breaktrack — Fri, 19 Jan 2007 10:53:24 +0000

Why aren’t netizens posting pictures and ruining the lives of these diplomats who are so uncaring and callous to their so called brothers and sisters from the North? After all, they’ll destroy the life of a woman for acting in porn, yet they don’t treat someone the same way for sending fellow Koreans to their deaths!! Something is out of wack there! It’s no secret that Northerners who settle in the South are treated as inferiors by their South Korean brothers and sisters.

By: Lankov

Lankov — Fri, 19 Jan 2007 08:34:47 +0000

Well, I do not know, but such ugly events with defectors happen way too often to be seen as merely results of incompetence. It is unlikely that there is any formal instruction to reject the NK defectors and/or deny them assistance, but I am pretty sure that SK embassies have received some hints from above. Some diplomats chose to ignore hints, but it is clear that Seoul does not want more defections (a mistaken policy, actually, even if judged from purely pragmatical point of veiw), so embassy people prefer not to be too active. I do not think that there is a paper trail to prove that this is a sort of deliberate policy. But such events are unliklely to be coincidences: too many ungly incidents happenned to aspiring defectors, and too frequently. And, needless to say, SK society does not care much (some people care, but not society at large).

By: ziffel

ziffel — Fri, 19 Jan 2007 06:45:50 +0000

I read this in today’s Korea Herald and literally almost spit my coffee:

“Because the government’s position regarding North Korean defectors is so complicated, it is true that the officials in charge of the affairs lack motivation or education,” a government official said on condition of anonymity.

They “lack motivation or education”?! WTF!?

Then again, perhaps in their defense, the Roh government’s position on N Korea is riddled with so many contradictions that they no doubt are getting many conflicting instructions from Seoul on how to handle defectors.

But that’s an excuse to be stressed about how to handle a given refugee case. That’s not an excuse to send people back to NK where the horrors of the gulag await them.

By: slim

slim — Fri, 19 Jan 2007 04:20:17 +0000

Maybe the way to stir the pot is to have American and Japanese activists “abduct” these POWs, abductees and refugees from the streets of Shenyang. Then we’d see righteous umbrage.

By: babarian

babarian — Fri, 19 Jan 2007 04:09:00 +0000

What is with Koreans that they can mass huge protests against FTA negotiations with the U.S., yet nary a peep against China when it sends Koreans back to the North to such a bleak fate?

Is it because you are scared of the Chinese? Is it because they are your “big brother”, while the U.S. is just an upstart? Is it because they look like you and we don’t?

In Korea the guys who organise and participate huge protests are generally commies or quasi-commies like those in the current government. That’s why they’re soft with the Chinese and the North Koreans.

By: globalvillageidiot

globalvillageidiot — Fri, 19 Jan 2007 02:59:35 +0000

Go to the Yonhap English site. Go past the main page and click on national news. No mention whatsoever of these defectors in China. However, you will find a story telling of South Korea thwarting Japanese efforts to discuss their abducted citizens…