In 2019, two North Korean fishermen admitted to having murdered 16 ship companions before they lelected in South Korea by boat and asked for asylum. The then progressive government of the South refused them the status of refugee or a trial there and, in an unprecedented move, send them back to the north.
This decision sparked not only a political storm at the time, but also criminal charges against four senior officials continued after the current conservative government, with a harder position against North Korea, took power in Seoul in 2022 .
Tuesday, a panel of three judges before the Central District Court of Seoul discovered the four best aid for national security to former president Moon Jae, guilty of having abused their official power when they returned the North Fishermen -Moreans on the run. The court announced prison sentences but decided not to impose them immediately, indicating in his verdict that he considered the criminal charges against civil servants to be politically motivated by the successor of Mr. Moon, President Yoon Suk Yeol .
The four former civil servants – Mr. Moon’s national security advisor, Chung Eui -Yong; Its national intelligence director, Suh Hoon; his presidential staff chief, Noh Young-Min; And his Minister of Unification, Kim Yeon -Chul – was sentenced to six to 10 months in prison. But the convictions were suspended for two years, after which they will be deleted.
The criminal charges the four were confronted were the first of its kind in South Korea and reflect the polarization between the two main political parties in the country when it comes to facing its old enemy of North Korea.
When South Korea captured the two North Korean fishermen, then aged 22 and 23, in its waters in 2019, they were not ordinary defectors. They admitted that they had fled after killing the captain and 15 other crew members on their boat with hammers, throwing their bodies into the sea.
South Korea had no treaty with North Korea for extradiation of criminal suspects. By virtue of its constitution, he must treat the North Koreans as his citizens and, until then, had accepted all the applicants of North Korean asylum, whatever their history. But this time, Mr. Moon’s government decided to repatriate them to the north, calling them “heinous criminals”.
The two were denied access to lawyers or a chance in the court to appeal to the government’s decision to repatriate them. Five days after being captured, they were taken, blindfolded and attached hands, on the inter -forest border. One of them resisted when he saw what was going on and had to be dragged by South Korean officials to be given to their North Korean counterparts.
Moon’s government criticisms accused him of refusing the two fishermen a fair trial in the south and of having sent them to certain executions in the North in order to advance his policy of improving links with the North. The government of Mr. Moon argued that there was no means for South Korea to do justice to the two North Koreans through its judicial system because all key evidence against them were in the north.
The prosecutors initially decided not to charge the aid to Mr. Moon who were involved in the decision. But things changed after Mr. Yoon took office in 2022.
Mr. Yoon, a fierce criticism of Mr. Moon’s policy in North Korea, cited the case of fishermen as an excellent example of human rights ignorance of asylum seekers for the good of appeasement policy. Under Mr. Yoon, the Ministry of Unification, which had supported repatriation, released Video sequences And photos showing that the two North Koreans are directed against their will, at the limit.
In their decision on Tuesday, the judges said that the former officials had denied fishermen their right to a fair trial in South Korea. But they also suspected a political reason behind the accusations, quoting Mr. Yoon’s comments on the case and the prosecutors’ decision to reverse their previous position not to file a complaint.
In South Korea, the presidents in search have long been accused of having armed the prosecutors to discredit the governments of their predecessors with criminal accusations, creating a vicious circle of political revenge. Mr. Yoon himself is now suspended from his duties and faces criminal charges related to his unhappy martial law declaration in December.
The judges said that South Korea should develop guidelines that could help its civil servants treat cases like the two North Korean fishermen.
Without such rules, “there is no guarantee that similar confusion will not be repeated if the same case or a similar case will reproduce,” said the judges.
Prosecutors have one week to appeal the decision.
