Tag: refugees

North Korean Diplomat Defector Reportedly Seeking Asylum in the United States

| January 7, 2019

I would expect the US will keep this defection very quiet until a way ahead on a second Trump-Kim summit is figured out:

Jo Song-gil

The disappearance and alleged request for asylum by former North Korean defector Jo Song-gil are posing a challenge for North Korea and the United States as they prepare to meet, as the former acting ambassador to Italy is reportedly seeking asylum in the United States.

Washington remains mum over these reports from the Italian media, apparently wary of the fallout from the issue ahead of their possible second summit set to take place in the near future.

The U.S. Department of State declined to confirm anything on the reports on Friday that Jo, who has reportedly been in hiding for weeks, has expressed hopes to settle in the U.S.

The 44-year-old North Korean diplomat has been missing with his family since early November without prior notice. Jo’s specific whereabouts remain unknown. 

Korea Times

You can read more at the link, but former diplomat defector Thae Yong-ho has request that Jo seek asylum in South Korea. Considering the Moon administration’s cozy relationship with the Kim regime I can understand why he doesn’t want to go to South Korea.

Protesters Face Off Against Each Other in Seoul Over Government’s Refugee Policies

| September 18, 2018

Jeju Island has been the epicenter of the refugee issue in South Korea and this weekend protesters faced off against each other in Seoul.  However, judging by the size of the protests few people apparently cared enough about this issue to join the protesters:

Anti-refugee protesters march to the National Human Rights Commission while demanding abolishment of the Refugee Act, in Jongno, central Seoul on Sunday. (Yonhap)

Two contrasting rallies, in support of and opposition to the Refugee Act, took place across from each other in Jongno in central Seoul on Sunday. The movements came two days after the Justice Ministry granted one-year humanitarian stay permits to 23 Yemeni asylum seekers.

Under the rain, some 200 rallygoers demanded the government grant greater legal refugee status to more asylum seekers, and called for efforts to reduce discriminations against asylum seekers, in front of Bosingak.

Just across the road, some 300 protesters gathered in front of Jongno Tower to chant for the abolishment of the Refugee Act, and chanted that the government should protect the interests of Koreans.  [Korea Herald]

You can read more at the link.

South Korea Deports Six and Arrests One Syrian Over ISIS Support

| July 21, 2018

These deportations and arrest will likely give critics support for not admitting anymore refugees into South Korea:

Prime Minister Lee Nak-yon, right, chairs the anti-terror committee’s meeting at the Seoul Government Complex in Gwanghwamun District on Monday. Yonhap

Six migrant workers have been deported this year over allegations they supported international terrorist groups.

This followed a joint operation by South Korea’s top law enforcers.

Police, prosecutors, the national intelligence service and the justice ministry discovered evidence that the suspects endorsed the terrorist groups “beyond curiosity” and shared information about them with others.

The information came to light in a report revealed during the national anti-terror committee’s regular meeting at the Seoul Government Complex on Monday. Prime Minister Lee Nak-yon presided over it.

Another report said a Syrian migrant worker was arrested in Incheon for inciting co-workers to join extreme Islamic terrorist group ISIS. The Incheon Metropolitan Police Agency’s international criminal investigation bureau arrested the man, 33, for showing ISIS promotional video clips to the workers and encouraging them to join it. The authority sent his case to prosecutors early this month.  [Korea Times]

You can read the rest at the link, but a flood of Muslim refugees into Jeju Island from mostly Yemen has caused terrorism fears to grow in South Korea in recent months.

North Korea Threatens to Cancel Proposed Family Reunions with South Korea

| July 21, 2018

It didn’t take long for the North Koreans to use the proposed family unions as leverage against the South Korean government:

North Korea’s state-run media released a string of articles on Friday that criticized the South Korean government, hinting that planned reunions for families split between the two nations could be canceled. An editorial in the official state newspaper of the North Korean ruling party, Rodong Sinmun, argued that South Korea had been exaggerating its role in denuclearization talks between Pyongyang and Washington. South Korea’s role in the talks does “not even amount to that of an assistant,” the editorial stated. The same article described comments made by South Korean President Moon Jae-in in Singapore last week as “presumptuous” and “flippant.”  [Washington Post]

You can read more at the link, but it appears the North Koreans are trying to put the ROK government back in its place as being subservient to the Kim regime with the denuclearization talks solely between the US and North Korea.

Here is the main reason they are threatening the cancelation of the family reunions:

In another attack against the Moon administration, Uriminzokkiri, a North Korean propaganda website, urged it to repatriate a dozen North Korean restaurant workers who came to the South in 2016.

The 12 had worked at a North Korean restaurant in China. Pyongyang claims they were abducted by South Korean authorities. The South has said the workers defected of their own free will.

Uriminzokkiri said there could be an “obstacle” in the planned reunion of families divided by the 1950-53 Korean War next month if the workers are not returned.

It lashed out at Unification Minister Cho Myoung-gyon by name, accusing him of “siding with” the former government which it said plotted the workers’ defection. [Reuters]

I think even for a left wing administration like President Moon’s, this will be politically very difficult to do.  Could you imagine the backlash of forcibly removing these defectors from South Korea and handing them over to the Kim regime?

North Korean Restaurant Manager Defector Says He Was Blackmailed to Defect

| July 16, 2018

It looks like the Kim regime has made good progress on getting the restaurant workers returned to North Korea:

A former North Korean restaurant manager who defected to South Korea in 2016 together with a dozen female workers claimed Sunday that Seoul’s spy agency had lured and blackmailed him into defecting.

Ho Kang-il’s claim, made in a phone interview with Yonhap News Agency, corroborates suspicions that the high-profile defection was not voluntary and the then-government of President Park Geun-hye orchestrated it behind the scenes.

During the interview, Ho claimed that the South’s National Intelligence Service had tried to persuade him to defect, saying it would help him open a restaurant in a Southeast Asian nation, but the spy agency didn’t make good on the promise.

“Originally, I was a cooperator of the NIS and brought information to them,” Ho said. “But they lured me, saying that if I come (to the South) with my employees, they would get us to obtain South Korean citizenship and then they would open a restaurant in Southeast Asia that could also be used as an NIS hideout. They told me to run the restaurant there with the employees.”

Ho claimed NIS agents blackmailed him when he hesitated.

“They threatened that unless I come to the South with the employees, they would divulge to the North Korean Embassy that I had cooperated with the NIS until then,” Ho said. “I had no choice but to do what they told me to.”

He also said that the restaurant employees had thought they would be going to a restaurant in Southeast Asia, and it was only after they got on board the flight that they learned they were headed to the South.

Questions about their defection first arose in May after a local cable broadcaster aired an interview with the restaurant manager. Pyongyang has demanded their return, saying they were abducted by South Korean intelligence, but the South Korean government has claimed that all of the North Koreans defected voluntarily.

Last week, the U.N. special rapporteur on human rights in North Korea, Tomas Ojea Quintana, called for a “thorough” and “independent” investigation after he met with some of the defectors.

“It is clear that there were some shortcomings in regards to how they were brought to South Korea,” Quintana told reporters. “From the information I received from some of them, they were taken to the Republic of Korea without knowing they were coming here.”  [Yonhap]

First of all the ROK intelligence service should be asking North Koreans if they want to defect, however I don’t believe they should not be blackmailing them.  With that said we don’t know if the blackmail claims from the restaurant manager are true.  Remember these allegations from the restaurant manager only came up after the Moon administration came to power.  Is the Moon administration putting him under intense pressure and allowing the North Koreans to contact him with threats against his family back in North Korea?

Remember these restaurant workers could have easily have made statements to the media that they were kidnapped before Moon became President or even over the first year of the Moon administration.  It was only this past May when JTBC, Pyongyang’s favorite South Korean news channel, was allowed to interview the restaurant manager did these claims come up.  It is going to be interesting to see if the Moon administration ups the pressure on the restaurant workers to voluntarily return to North Korea to keep the current peace process moving forward.