Unification minister rules out end-of-war declaration

Newly-appointed Unification Minister Kim Yung-ho declared Thursday that the Yoon Suk Yeol administration would “never” seek a formal declaration ending the Korean War, saying it would hamper efforts to bring home South Koreans detained in the North.

Unification Minister Kim Yung-ho speaks during a meeting with representatives and relatives of South Koreans who have been abducted and detained by North Korean agents. The South Korean government estimates approximately 516 South Koreans are being held against their will in the North. [YONHAP]

Newly-appointed Unification Minister Kim Yung-ho declared Thursday that the Yoon Suk Yeol administration would “never” seek a formal declaration ending the Korean War, saying such a move would hamper efforts to bring home South Koreans held against their will in the North.

Kim made the remarks during a meeting with representatives of civic groups dedicated to resolving the issue of South Koreans abducted or detained by the North, which was his first official engagement as unification minister.

“The conditions for an end-of-war declaration have not been met, and the issue of abductees, prisoners of war and detainees in the North would be passed over if such a declaration is made,” Kim said, adding that the Yoon administration “would never pursue an end-of-war declaration” under current circumstances.

An end-of-war declaration was pursued by the preceding Moon Jae-in administration during its last year in office, but the idea never gained much traction in either Washington or Pyongyang amid mounting tensions over stalled talks regarding the North’s nuclear weapons program and its resumption of missile launches.

President Yoon has expressed opposition to declaring a formal end to the 1950-53 Korean War — which ended with an armistice but not a peace treaty — without concrete steps by the North to dismantle its nuclear weapons and missile programs.

Yoon has been particularly critical of his predecessor’s efforts to lift international sanctions levied against the North for its illicit development of banned weapons.

Kim, a hawkish scholar who previously served as a human rights envoy prior to his appointment as unification minister, made remarks in the past arguing that North Korea needs to be pressured to improve its human rights situation, an issue the regime has especially bristled over.

During his meeting on Thursday, Kim emphasized the Yoon administration’s “firm” resolve to seek answers from the North regarding detained South Korean nationals, calling it “a human rights issue.”

In the decades since the end of the war, Pyongyang has detained and abducted thousands of South Koreans and foreign nationals to bolster the North’s human capital, propaganda efforts and intelligence capabilities, as well as to destabilize the South, according to a report by the Asan Institute in 2018.

In addition to an estimated 50,000 South Korean prisoners of war who were never repatriated despite the terms of the armistice, 3,835 South Korean civilians have been abducted by the North after the war, with the vast majority being taken between 1955 and 1977.

Of this number, 3,319 were released or successfully escaped back to the South, leaving 516 who have never returned.

More recently, at least six South Koreans, including three pastors, have been abducted to the North from China since 2013 and sentenced to prison for sheltering North Korean defectors and helping them reach safe haven — activities that the North considers anti-state crimes.

On Wednesday, human rights groups also penned an open letter to President Yoon Suk Yeol, urging him to raise the issue at his upcoming summit at Camp David with U.S. President Joe Biden and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, whose countries’ nationals have also been held against their will by the North.

The groups also urged Yoon to lead diplomatic efforts to secure the immediate return of survivors, as well as the repatriation of remains of those who died during their captivity.

BY MICHAEL LEE [lee.junhyuk@joongang.co.kr]