The wife of a South Korean fisherman who reportedly escaped North Korea after 31 years of captivity there accused her government Friday of refusing to help her husband back home.
Choi Uk-il, 67, fled to China in late December after being kidnapped to the North in 1975 and was tearfully reunited with his wife, Yang Jeong-ja, in the northeastern Chinese city of Yenji late last month.
Video footage and other media reports in Seoul showed that a phone call for help by the escapee to an official at the South Korean consulate in Shenyang, Chna, was "rudely" turned down.
The wife flew back to Seoul to bring the case to the attention of the central government. On Friday, she visited the Foreign Ministry to protest.
"My husband needs immediate treatment as he was recently injured in an (automobile) accident, but he is unable to get any medicine," Yang told reporters after a meeting with Lee Hyuk, director-general of the ministry's Asian and Pacific Affairs Bureau "I hope my husband is allowed to return to South Korea at the earliest date possible," she said, wiping tears from her wrinkled face.
She said her husband was forcibly taken to North Korea aboard a fishing boat while operating off South Korea's east coast.
Shortly after Yang's visit to the ministry, a civic group, which reportedly helped Choi's escape, said the husband has been placed under protection of South Korean authorities in China.
"Choi's custody was transferred to our government officials from his hideout in Yenji on Friday morning," said Choi Sung-yong, head of an association of people who have abducted family members.
Foreign Ministry officials refused to confirm.
"It is not going to be easy to arrange Choi's return," a ministry official said, citing China's policy that does not recognize escapees from North Korea as refugees.
China is abound by treaty with North Korea to return any border trespassers back to Pyongyang.
In a statement posted on its Website, the Foreign Ministry apologized that its diplomats in China had failed to fully support the escape when he called for help but insisted that the government has done its utmost to arrange Choi's return home "ever since it learned" about his presence in China.
"I promise that (the ministry) will thoroughly review services of diplomatic missions in foreign countries to make sure such an incident never recurs," the head of the Asian-Pacific affairs bureau said in the statement.
Seoul believes over 480 South Koreans have been kidnapped to the North since the end of 1950-53 Korean War and remain there.
Pyongyang denies holding any South Koreans, claiming the ones there came voluntarily.
Seoul, Jan. 5 (Yonhap News)
Ministry under fire for 'insincere' handling of escapee from N. Korea |
