Families of victims of N. Korea's abduction, detention urge int'l solidarity to address issue

▲ Choi Jin-young (L), son of Choi Chun-gil, a South Korean missionary detained in North Korea, speaks at a public hearing in Seoul on Aug. 29, 2024, designed to call for international solidarity to address the North's abduction and detention. (Yonhap)

▲ This photo, taken Aug. 29, 2024, shows a public hearing, hosted by the unification ministry, designed to call for international solidarity to address the North's abduction and detention. (Yonhap)

abductees-public hearing

Families of victims of N. Korea's abduction, detention urge int'l solidarity to address issue

By Kim Soo-yeon

SEOUL, Aug. 29 (Yonhap) -- Families of victims of North Korea's abduction and detention on Thursday called for international solidarity to resolve the issue of enforced disappearances by the North, as they appealed for efforts to confirm the fate of their family members and secure their safe return.

The joint call was made at a public hearing, hosted by the unification ministry, on the occasion of the International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances that falls on Aug. 30.

The event also brought together diplomats from 15 countries, which have established diplomatic ties with both South and North Korea, as well as from the United States and the Philippines.

The hearing came as the United Nations Human Rights Council is set to hold a universal periodic review (UPR) of North Korea in November. UPR is a mechanism that calls for each U.N. member state to go through a peer review of its human rights record every 4.5 years.

At the public hearing, families of the victims appealed for the diplomatic corps' support for the issue of the North's abduction and detention to be highlighted at the upcoming UPR.

Choi Jin-young, son of Choi Chun-gil, a South Korean missionary abducted by the North in 2014, called on North Korea to confirm the fate of his father and other detained South Koreans and also immediately return them home.

Currently, six South Koreans are being detained in North Korea, including three missionaries -- Kim Jung-wook, Choi Chun-gil and Kim Kook-kie -- whose whereabouts and fates are unknown.

"I am desperately asking for support from diplomats from countries having diplomatic ties with North Korea," Choi said. "I am thinking about my father every moment and am not letting it go. So I hope you could deliver my words to my father, if possible -- Please, do not lose a thread of hope."

Kim Jeong-sam, an elder brother of missionary Kim Jung-wook, also asked for the foreign diplomats present to help raise awareness about the issue of the six detained South Koreans in their countries.

Vice Unification Minister Kim Soo-kyung called on North Korea to apologize for its crime against humanity and proactively resolve it.

"North Korea should not miscalculate that it could conceal this crime with the weight of passing time," Kim said in a speech read by Choi Sun-young, policy adviser to the unification minister.

Separately from the six South Koreans detained in the North, 516 South Koreans have yet to return home among an estimated 3,835 people who were kidnapped by North Korea after the 1950-53 Korean War.

At least 60,000 prisoners of war (POWs) are also estimated to have not come back home or gone missing after being detained in North Korea. A total of 80 POWs have returned home since 1994, but only nine had been alive as of March.

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