Open letter to President Yoon – International Week of the Disappeared
May 22, 2023
President Yoon Suk-yeol
22, Itaewon-ro, Yongsan-gu, Seoul 04383
Republic of Korea
E-mail: president@president.go.kr
CC. Prime Minister Han Duck-soo
Office for Government Policy Coordination / Prime Minister’s Secretariat
Government Complex-Sejong
261 Dasom-ro, Sejong-si 30107
Republic of Korea
Fax: +82 44 200 2144
Foreign Minister Park Jin
Ministry of Foreign Affairs
60 Sajik-ro 8-gil, Jongno-gu, Seoul 03172
Republic of Korea
Fax: +82 2 2100 7934 / 7965 / 7967
Unification Minister Kwon Young-se
Ministry of Unification
209 Sejong-daero, Jongno-gu, Seoul 03171
Republic of Korea
Fax: +82 2 2100 2319 / 2379
Justice Minister Han Dong-hoon
Ministry of Justice
47 Gwanmun-ro, Gwacheon-si, Gyeonggi-do 13809
Republic of Korea
Fax: +82 2 2110 0351 / 3113
Re: South Korea’s responsibility as a global pivotal state to ensure judicial accountability for the abductions and enforced disappearances perpetrated by North Korea through the speedy completion of the domestic implementing legislation for the Enforced Disappearance Convention and normalization of the Ministry of Justice’s North Korean Human Rights Archive on the occasion of the International Week of the Disappeared
Dear President Yoon Suk-yeol,
On the occasion of the International Week of the Disappeared, we urge South Korea to speedily complete the domestic implementing legislation for the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance (Enforced Disappearance Convention) and ensure judicial accountability through the Ministry of Justice’s North Korean Human Rights Archive in fulfilment of its responsibility as a global pivotal state.
South Korea acceded to the Enforced Disappearance Convention on January 4, 2023, and the Convention entered into force for South Korea thirty days later on February 3. However, South Korea has yet to enact the Enforced Disappearance Convention’s domestic implementing legislation which is necessary to fulfil its obligations under the Convention, including the punishment of the crime of enforced disappearance. The continued absence of the implementing legislation may obstruct the future prosecution of the individuals responsible for North Korea’s abductions and enforced disappearances in South Korean domestic courts by the strict application of the principle of legality, especially the principle of non-retroactivity.
Fortunately, from November 2020 to September 2021, the Ministry of Justice convened the Enforced Disappearance Convention Implementing Legislation Committee, composed of domestic and international criminal law and international human rights law experts and representatives from the Ministries of Justice, Foreign Affairs and National Defense[1]. This committee, headed by Judge Kwon O-Gon, formerly the presiding judge in the trial of Radovan Karadžić at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, fulfilled its mandate to prepare a draft implementing law[2]. There are also two implementing bills proposed by lawmakers Jeon Yong-Gi[3] and Kim Gi-Hyeon[4] pending before the Legislation and Judiciary Committee of the National Assembly. We therefore urge the speedy completion of the implementing legislation procedure.
We also note that the Ministry of Justice’s North Korean Human Rights Archive prepares the perpetrator cards from the questionnaires on North Korea’s human rights violations administered to the North Korean escapees by the Ministry of Unification’s North Korean Human Rights Records Center and transferred to the Archive under the North Korean Human Rights Act. We urge that the Ministry of Justice’s North Korean Human Rights Archive be returned from the Institute of Justice’s Yongin branch to the Government Complex – Gwacheon and the public prosecutors be reassigned to properly support future criminal investigation and prosecution of crimes against humanity and other grave human rights violations including enforced disappearances.
Thank you.
Sincerely,
Signature organizations and individuals (as of May 22, 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
Advocacy Forum
Asian Federation Against Involuntary Disappearances (AFAD)
Citizens’ Alliance for North Korean Human Rights (NKHR)
Commission for Disappeared and Victims of Violence (KontraS)
Committee for Human Rights in North Korea (HRNK)
Conflict Victims Society for Justice (CVSJ)
Defence of Human Rights (DHR)
HanVoice
Ikatan Keluarga Orang Hilang Indonesia (IKOHI)
International Coalition Against Enforced Disappearances (ICAED)
Justice For North Korea
Korean War POW Family Association
Mulmangcho
Save North Korea
THINK
Transitional Justice Working Group (TJWG)