Original article. Still too bad the NHRC is a powerless entity.
Much after the fact the National Human Rights Commission has pointed out problems with the method by which the National Intelligence Service and the Ministry of Unification investigated and then repatriated the 22 North Koreans who had come to the South on a rubber raft in the west sea in February. The NHRC also suggested improvements be made for greater transparency.
At the time of the incident the two government agencies announced that they had made a joint investigation, finding that the 22 had had no intention of defecting and wished to be returned to North Korea, but criticism arose over the propriety of their handling of the case.
Accordingly around mid-February the human rights organization Committee for the Democratization of North Korea (북한민주화위원회) sent an appeal to the NHRC about the ministers of the two agencies, saying, “there are problems of transparency with the investigatory process.”
According to a statement of the Committee on the 19th, the NHRC’s first investigatory committee considered the appeal and advised the NIS minister that, “we are recommending that when investigating North Koreans citizens steps be taken to clearly ensure their human rights and the transparency of the process, and that if they are judged to have no intent of defecting the people’s right to know is guaranteed by speedily informing the media.”
The NHRC wrote to the Unification Minister that, “a public channel should be opened to protect the personal safety of North Koreans being repatriated and to confirm they are alive.”
Those letters were sent on July 17th. The Committee was given them on August 11th.
Cha Seong-ju, chairman of the CNDK, said on the 19th that, “we still believe that there were procedural problems with the way the government handled the investigation and repatriation of those North Koreans and question whether reforms will be carried out.”
