Democratic Party recruits ex-official suspected in 2019 forced return of North Koreans

South Korea’s main opposition Democratic Party of Korea recruited a former National Intelligence Service official who was suspected of alleged wrongdoing in the forced repatriation of North Korean defectors in 2019, when former President Moon Jae-in was in office.

Kim Joon-hwan was Moon’s deputy director at the NIS at the time the Democratic Party administration decided to return the two North Korean fishers forcibly.

Several at the NIS, including then-director Suh Hoon, and the Moon presidential office were investigated and indicted for allegedly forging internal reports to support the decision to hand them over to North Korea. Their trial began in March last year.

After a news report revealed the circumstances of involuntary repatriation, the Moon administration said that the North Koreans were rejected entry because of their suspected role in the murder of the crewmen of the fishing boat that they worked on.

The forcible repatriation of the North Korean men was criticized by human rights groups then for denying them a chance of their right to a fair trial and returning them to the North where they face likely torture and other abuses.

Both of the North Korean fishers -- whose identities were disclosed by the rival People Power Party lawmakers as Woo Beom-sun and Kim Hyun-wook -- were in their early 20s when they were repatriated after being denied their request to defect to the South.

Kim, joining the Democratic Party on Friday, said he will do his part as a “watchdog” to prevent the NIS from being used as a tool for advancing political goals.

“There are concerns about the NIS and other powerful institutions being used to exert influence over the political activities of our citizens. I see it as my role to stop political involvement where there is such concern,” he said.

The Democratic Party offering a spot to the former NIS deputy chief was criticized by some lawmakers at the ruling People Power Party.

Rep. Ji Seong-ho, who fled from North Korea in 2006, told The Korea Herald that the latest recruitment by the opposition party was “unacceptable.”

“These young men came to the South thinking they had a chance of living in a free country, only to be returned to the land where their death is certain,” he said. “If the Democratic Party supports a peaceful reunification of the Koreas, the first thing they need to do is not reject North Koreans who escaped after suffering under the North Korean regime.”

The new recruits to the People Power Party include two North Koreans. One is Park Chung-kwon, a 37-year-old who worked in intercontinental ballistic missile research at the National Defense University in Pyongyang. The other is Kim Geum-hyok, a 32-year-old who worked for the South’s Ministry of Patriots and Veterans Affairs.