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| A group of attorneys file a lawsuit against former President Moon Jae-in for repatriating North Korean fishermen after holding a news conference in front of the Central Prosecutors' Office in Seoul, Monday. Yonhap |
Unification ministry releases 4-minute video of North Korean fishermen, reigniting heated debate about repatriation
By Kang Hyun-kyung
The Ministry of Unification on Monday released a four-minute video of two North Korean fishermen who were handed over to the North in November 2019, showing one of them frantically resisting repatriation.
The video was made public about a week after the ministry released 10 photos that documented how they were sent back to the North at the inter-Korean border area. The photos caused a stir because the North Koreans were apparently seen as being sent back to the North against their will.
The North Koreans were captured near the sea border in the East Sea in 2019. They confessed to killing 16 fellow crew members and voiced their intention to defect to South Korea. But the Moon Jae-in administration, which was governing the South at the time, deemed their intention to be insincere and sent the fishermen back to the North.
In the video, one of the men resisted fiercely while being taken by South Korean police to the military demarcation line. While kneeling, he head butted the ground several times. His handlers tried to stop him, but the man resisted only to be forcibly moved to a point where he was to be handed over to North Korean authorities. The final moment was not in the video.
The other North Korean fisherman did not resist.
In an earlier part of the footage, the two North Koreans were seen with their arms bound by rope and being ushered to the second floor of the inter-Korean Freedom House at the border truce village of Panmunjeom. One was wearing a black shirt, while the other was in a blue shirt.
The Ministry of Unification released the video which was filmed by an official who was at the scene in November 2019. The video was released belatedly after Rep. Tae Young-ho of the ruling People Power Party urged the ministry to make it public. The lawmaker, who is a North Korean defector, is known to have been aware that a video existed while analyzing the photos. The ministry initially said it would review whether the release of the video violates the law or not.
The video triggered another round of debate about the North Koreans' intent.
The main opposition Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) reacted furiously to the release of the video.
Its interim leader, Woo Sang-ho, said it would only do a disservice to the Yoon Suk-yeol government amid his falling approval rating.
Woo reiterated his party's stance that the North Korean fishermen were murderers and that the Moon government sent them back to the North against such a backdrop.
Rep. Kim Hoi-jae claimed the release of the video is part of the presidential office's political retaliation against the previous government.
"President Yoon once called those who investigate past cases for the purpose of political retaliation 'gangsters' but he is doing the same thing," he said.
Meanwhile, the ruling PPP said the video is a piece of hard evidence showing clearly that the North Koreans did not intend to return to the North.
The repatriation of North Korean fishermen has become a political football after a set of fresh allegations refuted the then Moon Jae-in government's claim that they did not express their willingness to defect to the South and that they were murders.
The unification ministry also came under fire for its shift in stance from three years ago. In the past, the ministry justified the repatriation of the North Koreans back to the North, underlining that they were murderers. But now, after a new president came into office, the ministry reversed its stance, claiming that the Moon government's decision to send them back to the North against their will was unconstitutional.
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