S.Korea violated the rights of deported N.Koreans

29/6/2022 12:59

        South Korea's 2019 decision to deport without legal process two North Korean fishermen suspected of murdering their shipmates violated human rights principles, after prosecutors reopened the case.
        
        South Korean activists had called on new President Yoon Suk-yeol to reinvestigate the case, blaming the previous government of trying to curry favour with Pyongyang amid denuclearisation negotiations and efforts at rapprochement.
        
        Tomas Ojea Quintana, U.N. special rapporteur on human rights in North Korea, told reporters, while the fate of the two men is unconfirmed, there was an expectation their rights would be violated when they were turned over to North Korean authorities, and therefore Seoul had an obligation to process them in the South Korean justice system rather than immediately repatriate them.
        
        Former President Moon Jae-in's administration deported the fishermen, describing them "dangerous criminals" who killed 16 other colleagues aboard their vessel while crossing the sea border and said they would cause harm if they were accepted into South Korean society.
        
        North Korea faces accusations of extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances, torture, arbitrary arrests, sexual violence and forced labour. It has denied mistreating its citizens.