hankyoreh

Kim Yong-won, a standing commissioner on the National Human Rights Commission of Korea, enters a plenary meeting of the commission on March 11, 2024. (Kim Young-won/Hankyoreh)

The UN special rapporteur on human rights defenders has apparently sent a letter to the South Korean government voicing concerns about actions contrary to human rights by Kim Yong-won, a standing commissioner with the National Human Rights Commission of Korea (NHRCK).

In the letter, she remarked that Kim, who also serves as the commission’s officer for the protection of military human rights, was in fact playing a leading role in human rights infringements, including the requesting of police investigations of surviving family members of soldiers killed while serving in the military.

The fact that the Yoon administration is receiving this sort of letter from a UN special rapporteur on human rights says a lot about where the NHRCK stands today.

According to the Hankyoreh’s coverage, UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Defenders Mary Lawlor’s letter to the South Korean government commented on Kim’s actions in requesting an investigation of the family members of the Yoon Seung-ju, a private in the Korean Army who was beaten to death, and filing suit to demand damages from the civic group Center for Military Human Rights, Korea.

In October 2023, Kim asked police to investigate family members of Yoon and human rights activities on charges including trespassing after they requested an interview over his decision to dismiss demands for an investigation into the young soldier’s death.

Is this the sort of person we have had serving as a NHRCK commissioner?

Yoon’s death was the impetus behind the creation of a military human rights protection officer position within the commission. It’s not clear Kim has any grasp of what a military human rights protection officer is supposed to do.

This is hardly the only behavior by Kim that makes it impossible to believe he is an NHRCK commissioner. He has routinely made crude comments about the commission itself — which he described as “under leftist control” — and human rights groups, which he has called “human rights peddlers.”

He also drew the Korean public’s wrath by dismissing an emergency restitution motion for Col. Park Jeong-hun when allegations first erupted last year regarding external pressure on a Marine Corps investigation. Initially, he made a statement to the effect that the Ministry of National Defense had acted inappropriately in taking back Marine Corps investigation records from the police; five days later, he did a complete 180 following a telephone conversation with then-Minister of National Defense Lee Jong-sup.

Kim’s actions suggest he has lost sight of the proper role of NHRCK commissioners as defenders of the public’s rights.

In June of this year, the Asian NGOs Network on National Human Rights Institutions (ANNI) sent a letter to President Yoon Suk-yeol urging him to abide by international human rights standards when selecting the next NHRCK chairperson.

In the letter, the ANNI wrote, that the NHRCK has been a “good example” of a national human rights institution in Asia, but “several concerns have been raised about the NHRCK since May 2022.” In particular, it singled out Kim and fellow commissioner Lee Choong-sang. Kim was appointed by Yoon Suk-yeol, while Lee was appointed by the ruling People Power Party (PPP).

But Kim has apparently applied to enter the running to take over from the current chairperson, Song Doo-hwan, when his term ends this September. This beggars belief.  As if the president naming someone as inappropriate as Kim to be an NHRCK commissioner were not enough, now he wants to make him chairperson?

It’s not at all clear just what the president thinks “human rights” means. We should not be having situations where someone even the UN has voiced concerns about ends up running the country’s human rights watchdog. 

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