hankyoreh

By Park Byong-su, staff reporter

Nine North Korean defectors on their way to South Korea were apprehended in Laos and delivered into the custody of local North Korean authorities.

A diplomatic source said that the North Korean embassy was closely involved in the process, suggesting Pyongyang is taking a more active approach on the defector issue than it has in the past.

The source explained on May 28 that the local South Korean embassy had received notification the day before.

“Authorities in Laos caught nine defectors who had arrived from China around May 10,” the source said. “The South Korean embassy was notified yesterday afternoon that they had been deported to China.”

The defectors were reportedly aged 15 to 22 and included seven males and two females.

After learning about their detention, the South Korean embassy repeatedly asked local authorities to turn them over to South Korea. In the past, Laotian authorities have typically turned defectors over within one to two weeks of their apprehension.

This time, they initially asked South Korean officials to wait. Then, on May 27, came the unexpected report that they had been deported to China.

The North Korean embassy appears to have been actively involved.

Yonhap News quoted a South Korean surnamed Joo, who was assisting the defectors’ passage to Seoul, as saying that one of the interrogators at the Laotian immigration office “was a man who spoke the North Korean language well.”

“The man is an official at the North Korean embassy here,” Joo said.

North Korean passport holders, believed to be government officials, were also reported to have accompanied the defectors on the plane to China. Their fate is uncertain, but they are believed to be under detention with North Korean authorities in China, with a strong chance of being repatriated.

Laos is a frequent stop for defectors on their way from China to South Korea. To date, authorities there have not tried to prevent them from traveling onward. Analysts said the decision to hand the recent group to North Korean authorities was the result of more active pressure from North Korea than in the past.

A fellow communist country, Laos has friendly relations with North Korea. In June 2008, the two countries signed a mutual legal cooperation treaty on civil and criminal cases and a memorandum of understanding on social security cooperation. Exchanges of high-level personnel are also relatively common. Last year saw visits to Laos from two high-profile figures, (North) Korean People’s Army Chief of General Staff Ri Yong-ho in May and Supreme People’s Assembly Presidium president Kim Yong-nam in August.

Meanwhile, the South Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs responded to news of their deportation on May 27 by holding an emergency meeting under Minister Yun Byung-se and forming a task force headed by Deputy Minister for Political Affairs Lee Kyung-soo.

But with the defectors currently in the hands of North Korean authorities, the likelihood of preventing their repatriation is slim.

Please direct questions or comments to [english@hani.co.kr]