South: Compensation Demands ‘Worthless’

Four people held against their will by North Korea, Lee Jae-keun (68), Jin Jeong-pal (66), Goh Myung-seop (63) and Kim Byung-do (53), filed a joint complaint against North Korea that included a request for compensation on January 9.

Choi Seong-yong, the head of the Abductee Family Assembly and Lee Jae-keun, the representative of the complainants, submitted a complaint demanding reparations for confinement, assault, and compulsory labor to the National Human Rights Commission of Korea, the Committee on Settlement of Past Incidents for Truth and Reconciliation, and the Ministry of Unification on that day.

They demanded that the North Korean labor party and North Korean leader Kim Jong Il pay $100 million to each detainee, a total of $400 million.

Choi said that it was both illogical and offensive to hear that prisoners held by South Korea who didn’t convert their political views and were repatriated to the North for humanitarian reasons demanded $1 billion in compensation against the South Korean government, and that the government should tell the North the outrage South Koreans are feeling about that demand.

Meanwhile, the government decided not to submit the joint complaint from long-term prisoners held by the South to the National Human Rights Commission of Korea and the Committee on Settlement of Past Incidents for Truth and Reconciliation.

The Ministry of Unification said there was no reason to send the North Korean complaint to the commission and the committee because its content is worthless.

The Ministry will decide whether to send its joint complaint after reviewing its contents, but it is said that many in the ministry are insisting that it be sent to North Korea in response to the North’s.

An official of the Ministry of Unification said that the ministry might deliver the complaint at an appropriate time as a fifty-fifty gesture to the North.

However, the prevailing view is that a lawsuit involving the South versus the North is not likely given that the complaint was addressed to each side’s ruling parties and national institutions, not to each side’s law enforcement authorities.

Myoung-Gun Lee weappon@donga.com gun43@donga.com