Families of S. Korean detainees in NK appeal to embassies for support

Lee Shin-wha, former ambassador for international cooperation on North Korean human rights (center), and families of South Korean nationals abducted and detained by North Korea attend the "Families' Call for International Solidarity: Issues of Abduction, Arbitrary Detention and Forced Disappearance" event held at the Inter-Korean Relations Management Bureau building in Seoul. (Yonhap)

South Korea's Unification Ministry on Thursday organized a first-ever event where families of South Koreans abducted and held captive by North Korea made a direct appeal to foreign missions in Seoul, urging global support in bringing these decades-old unresolved cases to the UN stage for resolution.

The event, titled "Families' Call for International Solidarity: Issues of Abduction, Arbitrary Detention and Forced Disappearance," aimed to garner support for highlighting North Korea's detention and abduction practices during the UN Human Rights Council's Universal Periodic Review of North Korea scheduled for November this year.

The UPR is a unique mechanism of the Human Rights Council that requires all 193 UN member states, including North Korea, to undergo a peer review of its human rights record every 4.5 years. Any UN member state can ask questions and make recommendations during the UPR session.

"As 10 long years have passed, my heart breaks to imagine the unbearable pain and despair my father, now in his sixties, must be enduring every single moment. Each morning, as I open my eyes, I picture him being forced into grueling labor under the scorching heat," Choi Jin-young, the son of Choi Chun-gil, a missionary who has been detained in North Korea since 2014, told diplomats.

"And every night, as I lay down to sleep, I'm consumed with worry, wondering if he survived the day. The thought of how utterly exhausting his days must be and how, in the depths of despair, he might be lying on that cold, damp prison floor, overwhelms me with sorrow."

Ambassadors and representatives from around 20 embassies, including those of Australia, Ireland, the European Union, Canada, Germany, France and the United States -- most of which have diplomatic ties with the two Koreas -- attended the event, according to the Unification Ministry.

Kim Jeong-sam, the elder brother of missionary Kim Jeong-wook, who has been detained in North Korea since 2013, urged participating countries to "call on North Korea to confirm whether the six detainees are alive and to demand their immediate release and repatriation" during the UPR.

The six South Korean detainees include three missionaries, among them Kim Kook-kie and Choi Chun-gil, who have been held since 2014, as well as three North Korean defectors who obtained South Korean citizenship.

Choi Jin-young (left), son of Choi Chun-gil, a South Korean missionary detained in North Korea, speaks at a public hearing in Seoul on Thursday, designed to call for international solidarity to address the North's abduction and detention. (Yonhap)

Choi agreed with the statements but emphasized that regular communication between the detainees and their families should also be demanded during the UPR.

"I also earnestly appeal to diplomats from countries that have formal diplomatic relations with North Korea," Choi said. "If possible, I beg you to somehow convey this message to my father: As his son, I think of him every moment and never let go of hope. I ask him to hold on and not lose hope, for my sake."

Park Hye-ja, director of the Korean War Abductees’ Family Union, whose father was abducted by North Korean intelligence officers in Seoul in 1950, emphasized that not a single South Korean abducted by North Korea during the 1950-53 Korean War has returned or had their whereabouts confirmed, even 74 years after the war.

"Imagine one day your father says, 'I'll be right back, just stepping out for a moment,' but then he is suddenly taken away, and for the next 74 years, you have no idea where he is or whether he's even alive," she told diplomats. "How would you have lived with such a heavy heart?"

Park on behalf of the civic group strongly urged "that the following recommendations be made to North Korea" during the UPR.

"First, North Korea must confirm the status of the 4,777 individuals officially documented by our country as victims of abduction during the Korean War, out of the estimated 100,000 abductees," Park said. "Second, North Korea must immediately return the individuals to their families. If they have passed away, their remains must be repatriated."

Choi Sung-yong, now in his 70s and head of the Abductees’ Family Union, whose own father was abducted in 1967, expressed his sorrow, stating, "My dying wish is to bring my father's remains home, so I can lay them to rest alongside my mother and finally remove his empty memorial tablet."

By Ji Da-gyum(dagyumji@heraldcorp.com)