South Korea’s 2019 decision to deport without legal process two North Korean fishermen suspected of murdering their shipmates violated human rights principles, a UN investigator said on Wednesday, after prosecutors reopened the case.
“These are extremely dramatic cases, because once a person is repatriated there is no reversal,” he said. “The [South Korean] government should not have repatriated these persons right away.” South Korean prosecutors have reopened the case, unification minister Kwon Young-se, who handles relations with North Korea, told Reuters on Monday.Neither Moon, who has kept out of the public eye since leaving office, nor North Korea has commented on the case.
That case has also been revisited by the Yoon administration, and last week South Korea’s maritime and military authorities reversed their earlier announcements and said there were no signs the official was trying to defect.