[Opinion] Communist Agents

North Korea deals with “crimes against the state” in an extremely harsh manner. According to North Korean criminal law, the harshest punishment for murder, is death, but conspiring to overthrow the government is death and the confiscation of one’s property.

North Korea is a place that does not show a single bit of humanitarian consideration toward acts against the state.

North Korean agents sent to South Korea are people who were trying to overthrow the Korean system in accordance to their doctrine of communizing South Korea. Some agents were captured, and out of them, those that refuse to adopt to the South Korean system are called “unconverted, long-term prisoners.” In 1993, the government sent Yi In Mo back to the North, and in September 2000, three months after the South-North summit meeting, it sent back the remaining 63.

In October 2005, the remains of Chung Soon Taek were handed over to his family in the North through Panmunjeom. Every single time, North Korean authorities praised the returnees as heroes and used them for propaganda.

On January 6, North Korean agents sent a collective complaint through the Panmunjeom liaison officers to National Human Rights Commission and Past History Settlement Commission for Truth and Reconciliation demanding a compensation of one billion dollars, or one trillion won, for their suffering in South Korea. They claim to have suffered torture and abuse for a long period of 30 to 40 years behind South Korean bars. They also claimed, “The ringleaders and the descendants of fascist, dictatorship era that committed such heinous acts should be judged by history and the nation and be put to death.”

The government estimates that in the period after the Korean War, North Korea abducted 485 South Koreans, and that about 546 Korean War prisoners are still alive after half a century of living in hellish conditions. Fishermen were abducted while catching fish, and Korean soldiers were victims of a war started by North Korean invasion, but North Korea has not repatriated a single person. Our country showed good faith and repatriated agents that sought the overturn of our country, and received a monetary demand equal to North Korea’s annual exports in return, which amounted to $1.02 billion in 2004.

A proverb used for such a case is “The thief turns on the victim with a club.” Four North Korean defectors that escaped from North Korea are reported to be planning to file a complaint against the National Human Rights Commission on January 9, demanding compensation against the North Korean government. Let’s now watch the South Korean government’s response towards these two complaints.

Han Ki-heung, Editorial Writer, eligius@donga.com