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| ▲ Rep. Joo Ho-young, floor leader of the ruling People Power Party, speaks at a party meeting at the National Assembly on Oct. 6, 2022. (Pool photo) (Yonhap) |
ruling party-NK fishermen
PPP calls for thorough probe into allegations against ex-FM Chung in N.K. fishermen repatriation
SEOUL, Oct. 7 (Yonhap) -- The ruling People Power Party (PPP) called for a thorough probe into the 2019 repatriation of North Korean fishermen Friday after a news report that then National Security Adviser Chung Eui-yong ordered that their expression of a desire to defect be removed from a report on their questioning.
Citing prosecution sources, the news report said Thursday that Chung, who also served as foreign minister in the Moon Jae-in administration, ordered officials probing the fishermen to remove certain phrases showing their willingness to defect to South Korea.
"If it's true, it should be seen as an attempt for cover-up. It's an act of crime," Rep. Joo Ho-young, the PPP's floor leader, told a party meeting.
"The key point in the 2019 repatriation of the North Korean fishermen is whether the government intentionally ignored their will to defect," Joo said. "The people need to clearly know whether that decision was made solely by Chung or whether it was reported to former President Moon Jae-in."
Joo also claimed that Pyongyang's recent missile provocations are the "consequence of reconciliatory policies" pursued under the previous administration.
Prosecutors have been looking into the preceding government's handling of the North Korean fishermen, who were captured near the sea border in the East Sea in 2019.
They confessed to killing 16 fellow crew members and expressed a desire to defect to South Korea, but the then Moon government deemed their intentions to be insincere and sent them back to the North.
Critics have accused the Moon administration of sending them back to their homeland in an effort to curry favor with Pyongyang so as to help move the stalled inter-Korean peace process forward.
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