Unification Minister Kim Yung-ho delivers a congratulatory speech at an occasion hosted by the Committee for the 5 Northern Korean Provinces in Jongno-gu, Seoul, Sept. 13. (Ministry of Unification)
South Korea’s Unification Minister Kim Yung-ho strongly condemned North Korea’s illegal detention of six South Korean nationals and demanded their fast and unconditional launch in an announcement launched Friday, which additionally marked the 4,000th day of captivity for missionary Kim Jung-wook, the longest-held detainee.
In a coordinated show of solidarity, the US State Division additionally issued its first-ever official assertion on the detention of South Korean nationals in North Korea, timed to coincide with Seoul’s announcement.
“North Korean authorities don’t present even minimal info, equivalent to affirmation of life or dying about our nationals who had been illegally arrested and are at the moment detained, including to the struggling of their households over time,” Kim decried.
“The ROK authorities condemns North Korea’s unlawful and inhumane human rights violations and strongly urges the North, which is a celebration to main worldwide human rights devices, to instantly and unconditionally launch our nationals who’re illegally detained,” the assertion added, referring to South Korea by the acronym of its official identify, the Republic of Korea.
In keeping with the Unification Ministry, the assertion marked the first-ever issued by a unification minister to sentence North Korea’s arbitrary detention of South Korean nationals and name for his or her fast repatriation.
Kim Jung-wook — who had been finishing up humanitarian help and missionary work for North Korean residents and defectors alongside the China-North Korea border — was arrested by North Korean authorities on Oct. 8, 2013.
In Might 2014, he acquired a life sentence of arduous labor on expenses unilaterally imposed by North Korea, together with plotting to overthrow the regime, participating in anti-state propaganda, and illegally crossing the border.
Missionaries Kim Kook-kie and Choi Chun-gil have been held in North Korean custody since 2014, whereas three North Korean defectors have been detained since 2016.
In his assertion, the unification minister additionally underscored that the return of six South Korean detainees is a “concern shared by the worldwide group.”
“Subsequently, with at present’s assertion, worldwide solidarity and calls for his or her fast launch will solely develop stronger,” the assertion learn.
“North Korea should not ignore our authentic calls for in regards to the lives and security of our residents and should clearly acknowledge the seriousness of the problem, in addition to the worldwide group’s sturdy warnings towards their repeated violations of common human rights norms,” it added.
South Korea’s Unification Minister Kim Yung-ho (left) and US Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell shake arms throughout a gathering in Washington in July 2024. Each officers put on symbolic badges that includes three forget-me-not flowers, produced by the Unification Ministry. This emblem represents the “proper to not be forgotten” for abductees, detainees and prisoners of battle, underscoring the South Korean authorities’s steadfast dedication to defending its residents. (Ministry of Unification)
The US State Division and World Affairs Canada additionally issued statements Thursday native time, particularly naming Kim Jong-wook, highlighting the 4,000th day of his captivity, and calling for the fast repatriation of South Korean nationals detained in North Korea.
The Kim Jong-un regime had detained Individuals and one Canadian — all of whom have since been launched.
“We urge the DPRK to instantly launch all those that have been denied truthful public trials and are subjected to unjust or arbitrary detention. The US stays gravely involved in regards to the lack of transparency, equity, and accountability inside the DPRK’s judicial system,” the press assertion attributed to State Division spokesman Matthew Miller learn.
The DPRK is the abbreviation for North Korea’s official identify, the Democratic Folks’s Republic of Korea.
The State Division’s assertion additionally condemned “the DPRK’s systemic violations and abuses of human rights and (known as) for the fast and unconditional launch of all these unjustly detained in North Korea.”
World Affairs Canada stated in an announcement, “Canada calls for his or her launch and for North Korea to fulfill its worldwide human rights obligations.”
In a separate assertion, the Unification Ministry emphasised the significance of the concurrent issuance of those statements, noting that they replicate the worldwide group’s shared dedication to resolving the problems of abductees, detainees and unrepatriated prisoners of battle.
The simultaneous issuance of the statements demonstrates that dedication between allies reaffirmed throughout key occasions, such because the Camp David summit between the leaders of South Korea, the US, and Japan in August 2023, is now being translated into concrete motion, the ministry defined.
The Unification Ministry shaped an Abductees Response Group in September final yr, putting it below direct ministerial oversight. Since then, the ministry has launched a sequence of initiatives aimed toward strengthening worldwide cooperation to handle and resolve the problem.
In August, the ministry organized a first-ever occasion the place households of South Koreans kidnapped and held captive by North Korea made a direct attraction to overseas embassies in Seoul, calling for world assist to raise these long-standing circumstances to the UN for motion and determination.
Kim Jeong-sam, elder brother of missionary Kim Jung-wook, expressed on Friday, “I’ve discovered energy not solely by way of the Unification Ministry but in addition from the assist of governments and civil societies all over the world. I’m assured that missionary Kim Jung-wook will at some point be reunited along with his household.”