Why is S.Korea hesitant to intervene in Shin Sook-ja case?

The government is hesitant to openly ask North Korea to confirm the fate of Shin Sook-ja, a South Korean national held in a prison camp in North Korea whom Pyongyang said had recently died, or ask for the return of her two daughters. The main roadblocks are fairness toward other defectors to North Korea and the legal status of Shin`s family.

A South Korean official said Wednesday, "In January, we proposed family reunions to the North and also suggested holding talks to solve humanitarian issues, including Shin. But the North rejected accepting the notification, leaving our government little room for talks."

Pyongyang`s negative stance is also partially due to complicated legal issues after Shin`s husband Oh Kil-nam, who had led his family`s defection to the North, defected to the South alone.

In February last year, Shin and her two daughters were registered as defection victims of North Korea after the Korean War. South Korea has enlisted 517 post-war defectors, according to a South Korean law on compensation and support for defectors to the North after the conclusion of the 1953 military armistice. Shin and her daughters are included.

Oh`s application for compensation with the deliberation committee for support of post-war defectors to the North was dismissed. The reason was that Oh was responsible for taking his wife and two daughters to the North, and was ruled ineligible for compensation.

Accordingly, the South Korean government has made no official request to the North for the return of Shin and her daughters. While some say Shin and her daughters are not defectors but separated relatives, the government exercised caution in consideration of fairness to other defectors.

The government confirmed whether 120 defectors were alive or dead at the first inter-Korean summit in 2000, and helped families to contact long-lost kin. Shin and her daughters are too well-known, however, and Pyongyang claims that the daughters do not want to see their father, giving Seoul little room to confirm if Shin is alive or dead.

Another issue is whether Shin`s daughters gave up South Korean nationality, which would give less room for Seoul to request their return. According to Oh, Shin and his eldest daughter are permanent residents of Germany with South Korean nationality and the younger daughter had immigrant status in Germany.

A South Korean official said, "However, there are rumors that Shin`s family became naturalized German citizens, and we`re trying to verify this but are having difficulty.

The government will keep a low profile for a while, and instead support the private group International Cooperation for North Korean Development in confirming Shin`s death and urge the return of her body, as well as Oh`s reunion with his two daughters in a third country.

shcho@donga.com