Open letter to Chancellor Scholz – Joint diplomatic efforts for ROK POWs, abductees and detainees

May 16, 2023

Chancellor Olaf Scholz
Bundeskanzleramt
Willy-Brandt-Straße 1
10557 Berlin
Federal Republic of Germany

CC. Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock
Auswärtiges Amt
11013 Berlin
Federal Republic of Germany

Re: Discussion of joint international efforts to resolve the issue of South Korean POWs, abductees and detainees in North Korea at the summit with South Korea on May 21, 2023

Dear Chancellor Scholz,

For the past 70 years, North Korea has refused to repatriate an estimated 50,000 South Korean POWs (prisoners of war) and 100,000 civilian abductees in clear violation of the 1953 Armistice Agreement as well as the 1949 Geneva Conventions relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War and relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War. Even after 1953, North Korea has denied the repatriation of at least 516 South Korean POWs and civilian abductees including from the Vietnam War and the 1970 seizure of the ROK Navy broadcast ship I-2, over 60 seizures of fishing vessels in 1955-1987 and the 1969 Korean Air Lines YS-11 hijacking. Recently, North Korea continues to detain at least 6 South Korean citizens (Kim Kuk-gi, Choi Chun-gil; Kim Jeong-wook; Kim Won-ho, Ko Hyon-chol and another individual whose name is not known).

We urge you to demonstrate the shared values of advancing human rights, democracy, the rule of law and accountability in the Indo-Pacific by addressing the issue of South Korean POWs, abductees and detainees in North Korea at the summit and in the joint statement with President Yoon Suk-yeol on May 21, 2023.

We note that in the Phnom Penh Statement of November 13, 2022, South Korean President Yoon Suk-Yeol, Japanese Prime Minister Kishida and US President Biden “reaffirm[ed] a shared commitment to the immediate resolution of the abductions issue” while the latter two “also express[ed] their support for the immediate release of the ROK citizens detained in the DPRK”.[1]

This was followed by a joint statement by 31 states, including South Korea and Germany, at the United Nations on December 9, 2022 which expressed “concern with the human rights situation of citizens of the Republic of Korea detained in the DPRK, abductions and enforced disappearances of Japanese and Republic of Korea citizens, and other nationals who are kept against their will in the DPRK, and unrepatriated prisoners of war” and strongly urged “the DPRK to resolve all outstanding issues with detainees, abductees, and disappeared and immediately return them to their homes”.[2]

Recently, South Korea and the United States stated that they “will strengthen cooperation to promote human rights in the DPRK as well as to resolve the issues of abductions, detainees, and unrepatriated prisoners of war”.[3]

In the upcoming summit, we urge you to include the issue in the summit agenda and joint statement and to jointly lead the international diplomatic efforts afterwards to resolve immediately all issues related to all POWs, abductees and detainees, in particular the realization of their immediate return and accountability, including the repatriation of the remains of the deceased persons.

In this regard, we note that past diplomatic efforts have resulted in the release of the last three US citizens (Kim Dong Chul, Tony Kim and Kim Hak Song) detained in North Korea on May 9, 2018 and North Korea’s commitment to recovering US POW/MIA remains including the immediate repatriation of those already identified in the joint statement following the Singapore US-North Korean summit on June 12, 2018.

Thank you.

Sincerely,

 

Signature organizations and individuals (as of May 16, 2023)

Kim Jeong-sam (elder brother of missionary Kim Jeong-wook who has been held in detention in North Korea since 2013)

1969 KAL Abductees’ Families Association

Citizens’ Alliance for North Korean Human Rights (NKHR)

Committee for Human Rights in North Korea (HRNK)

HanVoice

Justice For North Korea

Korean War POW Family Association

Mulmangcho

Save North Korea

THINK

Transitional Justice Working Group (TJWG)

 

Download the English PDF

Download the Korean PDF

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[1]Phnom Penh Statement on US – Japan – Republic of Korea Trilateral Partnership for the Indo-Pacific (November 13, 2022), https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2022/11/13/phnom-penh-statement-on-trilateral-partnership-for-the-indo-pacific

[2] Joint Statement Delivered by Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield on the Human Rights Situation in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (December 9, 2022), https://usun.usmission.gov/joint-statement-delivered-by-ambassador-linda-thomas-greenfield-on-the-human-rights-situation-in-the-democratic-peoples-republic-of-korea

[3] Leaders’ Joint Statement in Commemoration of the 70th Anniversary of the Alliance between the United States of America and the Republic of Korea (April 26, 2023), https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2023/04/26/leaders-joint-statement-in-commemoration-of-the-70th-anniversary-of-the-alliance-between-the-united-states-of-america-and-the-republic-of-korea