(g) Late 1970s: abduction and enforced disappearance of women from other countries
-
From 1977, foreigners of other countries were similarly abducted by the DPRK. The abductions have been carried out by force at times, and by luring the foreigners to the DPRK in other cases. Reasons for the abductions include teaching foreign languages in spy and military training schools, for technical expertise, and, in the case of many abductees, to be “given” in marriage to foreigners in the DPRK, to prevent inter-racial marriage with ethnic Koreans. As noted in section IV.C, the “pure Korean race” is a key feature of DPRK society and great efforts have been made to prevent the birth of mixed race Koreans.
-
For example, the US army deserters were provided with cooks who had been divorced from their husbands because they were believed to be infertile. According to Mr Jenkins, the cooks were “basically supposed to be unofficial wives, fulfilling all of the roles that wives traditionally fulfil”. The Americans were expected to have sexual relations with the cooks, and, on at least one occasion, the lack of sexual relations in one house resulted in the beating of the man. At In 1978, the cook assigned to Mr Abshier became pregnant and “disappeared overnight”.
“Following Abshier’s cook accidentally getting pregnant, our leaders told us that the Organization had decided that the policy of providing us female North Korean cooks was not working and that they had found us four Arab women from Lebanon to be our wives.”1471
-
It is notable that all of the documented abductions of nationals from countries other than the Republic of Korea and Japan occurred after Mr Abshier’s Korean cook became pregnant by him, and the four deserters were later paired with non-Korean women. This suggests that at least some of the non-Korean women abducted by the DPRK were taken for the purpose of becoming (sexual) partners to non-Koreans within the DPRK as a means to avoid compromising the purity of the Korean race.
1978: enforced disappearance of four Lebanese women
-
In 1978, four Lebanese women were lured to the DPRK;1472 According to Mr Charles Jenkins, they were to be the wives of four US army deserters.1473 They had been told that they were going to secretarial jobs in Tokyo paying $1000 per month. Two of the women escaped a year and a month after their abduction when visiting Belgrade. The other two women were “given” to US deserters Mr James Dresnock and Mr Jerry Parish to be wives. The mother of one of the abductees remaining in the DPRK found where the women were, and negotiated their release. According to Mr Jenkins, one of the women was pregnant by US Army deserter Mr Parish when she left the DPRK. As this created difficulty for her and her family, elected to return to the DPRK to be with the child’s father.
1978: abduction of a Thai woman from Macao
-
Ms Anocha Panjoy was abducted on 2 July 1978 from Macao. According to Mr Jenkins, who lived in the apartment alongside Ms Panjoy in the DPRK, Ms Panjoy has said she had been taken against her will to the DPRK after being forced on a boat in Macao. According to a newspaper article published three days after her disappearance, Ms Panjoy had gone on an outing with a man who held himself out to be Japanese. The article quoted a friend of Ms Panjoy who said Ms Panjoy had told the friend that if she did not return from her outing by 6 pm the police should be notified.1474 This information is consistent with the information Mr Jenkins said he was told by Ms Panjoy after her arrival in the DPRK. Ms Panjoy was “given” to US Army deserter Mr Abshier.
-
The Commission conducted an investigation in Bangkok, Thailand in September 2013 and received testimony from the family of Ms Panjoy. The Royal Thai Government has never acknowledged Ms Panjoy’s disappearance as a case of abduction, rather it holds that her disappearance is a case of “missing person”. Nonetheless, the Government said that it has repeatedly requested information about Ms Panjoy from the DPRK authorities but none has been forthcoming. The National Human Rights Commission of Thailand finalized its report about Ms Panjoy’s case in January 2014. The Commission has recommended to the Royal Thai Government that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs should continue to pursue her case.
-
The Commission finds that the evidence is available and sufficient to prove that Ms Panjoy was abducted while in Macao and then taken to DPRK. A key factor in this conclusion is the testimony of Mr Charles Jenkins and evidence including a photograph of his family in which Ms Panjoy is also depicted. The Commission concludes that she is still in the DPRK today.
1978: abduction of two Chinese women from Macao
-
Two Chinese women, Ms Hong Leing-ieng (alternate spelling: Kong Lingying) and Ms So Moi-chun (alternate spelling: Su Miaozhen) were abducted from Macao and taken to the DPRK at the same time as Ms Anocha Panjoy.1475 Ms Hong and Ms So worked together at a jewellery store in Macao. According to the accounts of their families, the two women came to know a man they believed to be Japanese in the jewellery store. The man, who is believed to be a DPRK agent, had been generous with the two women, taking them out on occasions to dinner and other forms of entertainment.1476
-
Ms Panjoy reportedly told Mr Jenkins, that there were two other abducted Asian women on the boat with her from Macao, but that she was not allowed to speak with them. Shortly before their arrival in the DPRK, the three women were ordered to take off their clothes. Their clothes were later returned to them clean, having been washed. Upon arrival, the three women were lined up for inspection by two senior leaders whose identities are known to the Commission. Each leader reportedly took one of the Chinese women away in their cars. Ms Panjoy did not see either again. Former North Korean agent Ms Kim Hyon-hui has revealed that she was taught Chinese by Ms Hong. Abducted South Korean actress Ms Choi Un-hee (see above) also reported liaising with Ms Hong in the DPRK.
1978: abduction of four Malaysian women and one Singaporean woman from Singapore
-
According to the National Association for the Rescue of Japanese Kidnapped by North Korea, on 20 August 1978, four Malaysian women - Ms Yeng Yoke (age 23), Ms Seetoh Tai Thim (age 19), Ms Yap Me Leng (age 22) and Ms Margaret Ong Guat Choo (age 19), 1477 and one Singaporean woman Ms Diana Ng Kum1478 - were kidnapped from Singapore. Two men claiming to be Japanese asked an escort agency to send five women to a party on a boat. The five women aged between 19 and 24 disappeared and the boat was never seen again. Ms Choi Un-hee allegedly heard of the Malaysians living nearby in the DPRK.
-
The Commission enquired of both Governments of the Republic of Singapore and Malaysian in pursuit of further details about the alleged North Korean abduction of their nationals. The Singaporean government advised that they do not have any information regarding the case, nor have they been approached by any next-of-kin for consular assistance. The Malaysian government did not respond to this request for further information.
1979: enforced disappearance of a Romanian woman
-
Ms Dona Bumbea disappeared from Italy in 1978 and is believed to have been lured to the DPRK. Ms Bumbea had been studying art in Italy at the time when she met an Italian man claiming to be an art dealer, who convinced her to hold an exhibition in Hong Kong. The two travelled to Pyongyang en-route to Hong Kong at which point the Italian disappeared. Ms Bumbea was kept in the DPRK and “given” to American army deserter Mr Dresnock. Ms Bumbea died in the DPRK and is survived by her two sons, Mr Ricardo Dresnock born in 1981 and Mr James Gabriel Dresnock, born in 1983,1479 both of whom have been seen in several documentaries including “Crossing the line” (2006) and “Aim High in Creation” (2013). Ms Bumbea’s family in Romania have been unable to have any contact with Ms Bumbea’s sons despite their wish to.
-
The Government of Romanian has indicated to the Commission that since the publication of Mr Charles Jenkins’ book in 2006 providing clear evidence of Ms Bumbea’s life in the DPRK, they have requested information of the DPRK authorities about Ms Bumbea. The demarches of the Romanian authorities have been met by the following response from the DPRK: “there are no evidence or indications certifying that a Romanian national was abducted under the circumstances.”1480
A French woman
-
The Commission of Inquiry has also received information about the alleged abduction of an unknown French woman. According to Ms Choi Un-hee, the French woman was lured to the DPRK after becoming romantically involved in France with a DPRK agent claiming to be a rich Asian heir. The woman apparently travelled to Pyongyang with the man who subsequently disappeared. She was kept in a “guest house” (guarded house) in the DPRK.1481 It is also believed that Ms Kim Hyon-hui saw the same French woman. Mr Jenkins recalls seeing a French woman during the filming of a movie in which they both participated. However, he does not know if the woman was abducted.1482
-
According to contemporaneous reports made by the returned Lebanese abductees, there were three French women in the same camp in the DPRK in which the Lebanese women were kept in.1483
-
The Commission considers it very possible that other foreigners, especially foreign women, were abducted by the DPRK. Upon their return, the Lebanese women referenced above reportedly told the Lebanese media they were held in a camp with 28 foreign women, including three French women, three Italian women, two Dutch women and other women from Europe as well as women from the Middle East.1484
(h) 1990s to present: abductions from China
-
In reaction to the movement of large numbers of citizens to China that started in the 1990s, operatives of the DPRK’s State Security Department have carried out organized abductions in the Republic of China. The victims have been subject to enforced disappearance in the DPRK. Former DPRK officials and others whose flight might reveal sensitive information to the outside world or ROK authorities have been among the primary victims, in addition to nationals of China and ROK who help DPRK citizens escape to China and from there to the ROK.
-
Mr Kim Young-hwan, a human rights activist from the ROK who has worked extensively in the border region, testified that at least six ROK nationals and a number of Chinese nationals, mainly of Korean ethnicity, had been kidnapped over the past 15 years. Mr Kim also indicated that the abductions targeted a specific profile of DPRK nationals:
“There is a lot of kidnapping and terrorism going on at least over the past 15 years. North Korea has set up and managed a kidnapping organization. … they have sent people to [major cities in China] to kidnap and these kidnappers went as far as cities like Shenyang. But they do not indiscriminately kidnap North Koreans or South Koreans, they abduct important people like those who are still in serving in Bowibu (State Security Department], in the police or those who are in a special relationship with the state. They target North Korean defectors who had once been or have started in important positions. Even if the targeted person to be kidnapped was not from a special position, if they were found to have been engaged in anti-state political activities in China, they would be the targets of abduction.”1485
-
The Commission was able to obtain two court judgments – one from the Republic of Korea; the other from the People’s Republic of China – convicting operatives who carried out abductions on behalf of DPRK State Security Department in China. The detailed findings set out in these judgments on the organization of the abductions and the methods followed are mutually reinforcing and are also corroborated by information that the Commission independently obtained during its public hearings, confidential interviews and through submissions.
-
The first judgment was issued in 2005 by the Seoul Central District Court, Republic of Korea.1486 The findings presented therein build on the confession of the defendant, a Korean-Chinese SSD operative, as well as the testimony of a former DPRK agent who was also directly involved in the abductions. It meticulously details the DPRK’s abduction of a pastor from the ROK, Reverend Mr Kim Dong-shik, the abduction of former Japanese national Ms Ryang Cho-oek and her family, and 12 other abductions of DPRK nationals. The defendant was convicted and sentenced to 10 years of imprisonment.
-
The second judgment was issued in 2006 by the Intermediate People’s Court of Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture, Jilin Province, China. 1487 It convicts two DPRK nationals and four Chinese nationals with six cases of abduction and a case of illegal detention. The judgment finds that they carried out abductions based on orders issued from the DPRK by senior officials of the DPRK’s State Security Department. Among the victims named in the judgment were former Japanese national Ms Ryang Cho-oek and ROK national Reverend Kim Dong-shik. The two DPRK nationals among the SSD operatives were convicted to imprisonment of 3 years and 7 months and 3 years and 6 months. The Chinese nationals received sentences ranging from 6 months to two years of incarcerations.
-
The judgments, additional witnesses testimony heard by the Commission and other information received shows that an entire team of SSD operatives of DPRK and Chinese nationals carried out a large number of meticulously organized abductions on behalf of the DPRK . They were retained by and acted under the orders and close operational guidance of SSD agents stationed in Hoeryoung, North Hamgyong Province, DPRK. An SSD “safe house” in Hoeryoung known as the Goksan factory was used as the base for the operations. The judgments, from China and the ROK, name particular SSD commanding officers stationed in North Hamgyong Province who masterminded the operations. Independently, the Commission received information implicating the same individuals from a former SSD agent who had been stationed in China, and another witness who runs operations to help DPRK citizens flee their country.1488
-
In January 2000, a team of SSD operatives abducted the Reverend Kim Dong-shik in Yanji City, in eastern Jilin Province, China. Reverend Kim was targeted by the DPRK, because he was helping DPRK citizens flee from China to the ROK. The SSD operatives lured him into a trap and took him by force to the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, where he was received by SSD operatives. In the DPRK, Kim Dong-shik was detained in an underground interrogation detention centre of the SSD in Hoeryoung, North Hamgyong Province. Mr Jeong Gwang-il, who was detained in the same SSD underground prison at the same time as Mr Kim Dong-shik, testified before the Commission that he saw and spoke with Kim Dong-shik there. Mr Kim Dong-shik walked with a crutch and he appeared to have sustained injuries pointing to torture.1489 According to the Korea Institute for National Unification, Mr Kim Dong-shik died in detention in February 2001 as a result of injuries sustained under torture.1490
-
In February 1999, SSD agents abducted Ms Ryang Cho-oek and three of her family members. The primary victim was a 61-year old Japanese women, who had migrated from Japan in the 1960s and later became a DPRK citizen. According to the orders transmitted to the operatives on the ground, the SSD in Hoeryoung had received “superior orders” to abduct the victim and her family by any means necessary as it would become a “disgrace for the DPRK if Ms Ryang Cho-oek and her family make it to Japan.”1491
-
In the period of 1998-2000, the following people were also abducted from China through meticulously planned operations ordered by and carried out on behalf of the DPRK’s State Security Department:1492
-
In March 1998, Mr Chun Sung (Chinese: Qian Cheng), a DPRK national, was abducted by the DPRK in 1998 in Yanji, Jilin Province, China. He was apparently targeted because the State Security Department suspected him of having cooperated with intelligence authorities of the Republic of Korea.
-
In August 1998, Mr Choi Chun-sok (Chinese: Zhu Yuan), a former journalist from the DPRK who had fled and obtained ROK nationality, was abducted by the SSD in Yanji Jilin Province, China.
-
Mr Ryu Young-beom was abducted by the DPRK in January 1999 in Longjiang City, Jilin Pronvince, China. Ms Park Bun-oek, who worked with him, was abducted one month later in Antu County, Jilin Province, China.
-
In February 1999, Ms Seok Du-oek, was abducted by the DPRK in Longjiang City, Jilin Province, China.
-
In February 1999, Mr Paek Seung-kuk suspected by the DPRK of working for the intelligence services of the Republic of Korea, was abducted in Longjiang City, Jilin Province, China.
-
In February 1999, SSD operatives abducted a soldier of the Korean People’s Army, who had fled to Sanhe Town, Longjiang City, Jilin Province, China.
-
In February 1999, SSD operatives, acting in collusion with two KPA military security command officers, unsuccessfully attempted to abduct two soldiers from Longjiang County, Jilin Province China. They had been involved in helping people flee the DPRK.
-
In March 1999, SSD operatives abducted Mr Hwang Young-chan from Longjiang City, Jilin Province. He had been a high-ranking official in Pyongyang before his escape to China.
-
In March 1999, Ms Rim In-Sook, her husband Han In-chan, two of their daughters, a son and an 8-year old grandson were abducted by the DPRK from Antu County, Jilin Province, China.
-
In June 1999, Mr Kim Chang-roek, whom the SSD suspected of being involved in the theft of grain, was abducted from Sanhe Town, Longjing City, Jilin Province by SSD operatives.
-
In October 2000, DPRK agents abducted Chinese nationals Jin Zhonglu from Yanji, Jilin Province, China. The victim had earlier defected from the DPRK to China with intelligence information and become a Chinese citizen.
-
In April 2001, DPRK agents abducted Mr Jin Huzhe in Jilin Province, China. They threatened to drown him in the Tumen River in order to extract information about another DPRK national, who was their actual target. When the agents discovered that their primary target had already moved from China to ROK, they released Jin Huzhe.
-
The Commission has reason to believe that the DPRK practice of abducting individuals from China was not limited to these abductions, carried out between 1998 and 2001, but has gone on for a long time.
-
A former member of the DPRK Escort Command assigned to protect the Supreme Leader and his family, testified that he escaped to China in 1989. After he reached Beijing, DPRK agents who pretended to be diplomats of the Republic of Korea lured him into the Embassy of the DPRK, from where he was forcibly transferred back to Pyongyang. The witness was subsequently detained for several years in Political Prison Camp No. 15 at Yodok, before finally being released.1493
-
In July 1995, Reverend Ahn Seung-woon was abducted. 1494 He was reportedly later seen on DPRK television and has not been heard of since.
-
According to information provided to the Commission by Christian Solidarity Worldwide, DPRK citizens Gil Ji-Man, Kim Cheol-Hun, Kim Cheol-Su and Shim Seong-Shin were allegedly all abducted from China in April 2003. Ms Jin Kyeong-Suk, who had fled from the DPRK to the ROK in 2002, was abducted during a visit to China in August 2004. Mr Kang Jeong, a former DPRK army officer, and Lim Yeong-Hak, who were both involved in helping DPRK citizens flee the country, were allegedly abducted in 2005 from Yanji City, Jilin Province, China.1495
-
North Korea Freedom Coalition, which brings together 70 non-governmental organiations, reported that Ms Lee Ju-Im, a 73-year old woman, was abducted by DPRK agents from a hospital in China. The agents apparently targeted her, because the DPRK had abducted Ms Lee as a young woman during the Korean War. In April 2008, Mr Lee Gi-Cheon, a 42 year old Chinese citizen of Korean ethnicity, was seized by DPRK agents near the Tumen River. Mr Lee was involved in helping DPRK citizens escaped and was abducted as he was leading newly arrived DPRK citizens from the border to Yanji, China.1496
-
A witness testified before the Commission about the 2010 abduction of Mr Chu (full name withheld) from Yanji City, Jilin Province, China. Mr Chu, a Chinese man of Korean ethnicity was also involved in helping people flee the DPRK.1497 Another confidential submission to the Commission suggested that up to 200 Chinese nationals, mostly ethnic Koreans, may have been abducted.
-
Several other witnesses who all run operations helping people flee the DPRK on the Chinese side of the border and regularly visit the area, testified about the continued presence of SSD agents and abduction threats.1498 One Witness was physically attacked on two occasions by people he identified as SSD agents. He narrowly managed to escape on both occasions.1499 Other witnesses recounted how they escaped planned abductions, because they received specific warnings by friendly contacts in the Chinese security services.1500 One former DPRK official who recently escaped the DPRK, reported that he had approached several churches in the border region for help, but was turned away, because the church leaders feared becoming victims of abductions if they helped the witness.1501
-
A former official related that DPRK officials stationed in Thailand were also instructed to find and abduct high-level defectors that made it to Thailand.1502
2. Suffering, discrimination and persecution resulting from disappearances
(a) Suffering and treatment of the disappeared and their descendants in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea
-
The Declaration on the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance categorizes enforced disappearance as a grave and flagrant violation of the human rights and fundamental freedoms proclaimed in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and an offence to human dignity.1503 The disappeared faced many additional human rights violations beyond the violation of the right to leave the DPRK, including discrimination.
-
All persons forcibly disappeared to the DPRK appear to be under special surveillance and had restrictions placed on their movements in the DPRK.1504 They have been denied the right to recognition as a person before the law,1505 and the right not to be subjected to torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment.1506 Different offices of the Workers’ Party of Korea and the Korean People’s Army are tasked with the surveillance of different groups of abducted persons. For example, Office 35 (of the Workers’ Party of Korea) monitors persons it has abducted, and Department 519 (KPA) monitors many of the non-Korean abductees.1507 Monitoring and surveillance of non-Korean disappeared persons in the DPRK can include the bugging of houses to record all sounds, being kept at premises surrounded by guards, and only being permitted to leave their homes weekly in the company of a monitor. Disappeared Koreans (including the ethnic Koreans and their spouses from Japan) integrated into society and under the regular levels of surveillance and monitoring,1508 have been placed under additional levels of surveillance at work and in their neighbourhoods. Disappeared persons have reported being under “constant surveillance”, which was increased around times of international incidents such as the DPRK´s capture of the U.S. naval intelligence vessel USS Pueblo in 1968.
-
Surveillance on the family members of persons disappeared by the DPRK is increased when it is suspected the person could or has escaped from the DPRK.1509 In the case of Oh Gil-nam (see above), Mr Oh’s family was detained, to ensure his loyalty whilst he was deployed to lure other ROK nationals from Germany to the DPRK. After his escape during the mission was reported to the DPRK, his wife and two daughters were sent to Yodok political prison camp.1510
-
Surveillance and restrictions on movement are so severe that persons forcibly disappeared by the DPRK, who have escaped from the DPRK, have been pursued across the Chinese-Korean border and forcibly returned to the DPRK. For example, Ms Ryang Cho-oek, a Japanese woman who had migrated from Japan in the “Paradise on Earth Movement”, and her family were tracked down to their new home in China. The family of four were then forcibly taken from their home and returned to the DPRK.
-
As noted in section IV.B, discrimination based on the Songbun system is pervasive in the DPRK. Although most Korean War abductees and non-repatriated POWs were able to integrate into society, because of their origins, they were classified into the hostile class and therefore suffered discrimination from the state as well as discrimination from DPRK citizens for being from the South. For example, the wife of a POW was pressured by authorities to divorce her POW husband in order to save her songbun. The woman was then married to a police officer and the POW disappeared.1511 For this reason, many did not reveal their origins to others, in some cases even to their own family. This double-discrimination, from both the state and DPRK nationals, resulted in restrictions on relations, being placed under special surveillance, restrictions on movements and having limited access to education and employment opportunities, food and medical care.
-
Disappeared persons have been denied access to education and employment opportunities and denied the right to vote. Disappeared ROK nationals have been particularly discriminated against in this regard. 1512 Their children have been unable to join the military or to go to universities.
-
Mr Lee Jae-geun, an abducted fisher whose son, born in the DPRK, was unable to go to university, left the DPRK in order that his son could access education “I left North Korea because they would not allow my son to go to university. If you don’t educate your children, the children will not be able to succeed.”1513
-
According to a returned POW, children of disappeared Korean nationals working in mines do so by force. He also testified to the Commission that although integrated into DPRK society and in receipt of an identification card, they were precluded from voting for 5 years. 1514
-
As a vast majority of the forcibly disappeared were subsequently categorized as “hostile” and sent to regional areas, particularly North Hamgyong Province, it is anticipated that those who survived the harsh treatment were likely the first victims of the famine in the 1990s because of their lower status. Being forced to live in remote areas with limited resources has also resulted in the forcibly disappeared having limited access to medical facilities.
-
Although non-Korean abductees were generally kept closer to Pyongyang, spared the full impact of the famine in the 1990s, and provided with access to medical services, they suffered other violations. Not being able to integrate into DPRK society, they were denied the right to work, precluded from leaving their residence and moving freely in society, unable to choose education opportunities for their children and facing sexual and gender-based violations, such as unwanted sexual advances from their monitors and forced marriages.
-
States are under an obligation to guarantee that a child born during the enforced disappearance of her or his mother shall be fully protected.1515 The birth of each child in such circumstances should be registered to guarantee the child’s true identity and information should be provided to relatives and/or legitimately concerned persons.1516 In violation of these requirements, the DPRK has not enabled children born to abducted persons to be registered with the state of their parents’ nationality, nor has it permitted the children contact with their extended family in other countries.
Share with your friends: |
