Family has 'right to know': UN rights expert calls for transparency in official's death

Tomas Ojea Quintana, the U.N. special rapporteur on human rights in North Korea, moves to the U.N. Human Rights Office in Seoul, Tuesday. Newsis

By Jung Min-ho

A United Nations human rights expert on Tuesday called for the release of more information about the incident in which a government official was killed in North Korean waters. He was quoted by the victim's brother as saying that his family has "the right to know."

At a meeting in Seoul with Lee Rae-jin, the elder brother of the fisheries official shot dead by the North two years ago, Tomas Ojea Quintana, the U.N. special rapporteur on human rights in North Korea, also said that Pyongyang should help the family uncover the whole truth, discipline those who were responsible and compensate the family for the loss.

"He expressed support for our fact-finding efforts, including the attempt to get access to the information kept in the presidential archives," Lee told The Korea Times.

His support comes at a time when the family members are demanding that the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea, which holds a majority at the National Assembly, agree to grant them access to classified documents sealed by the Presidential Archive. They are hoping that the documents will help them resolve questions about the tragedy, including whether the previous Moon Jae-in administration did what was necessary to save their family member.

Quintana is expected to share some of the family's concerns with high-ranking government officials, including Unification Minister Kwon Young-se, when he meets them on Wednesday.

Kim Ki-yoon, Lee's lawyer who also attended the meeting, said it is important that Quintana specifically said the North should compensate the family over his death and prosecute those directly involved in it.

Lee Rae-jin, the brother of a South Korean official who was killed by the North Korean military two years ago, speaks to reporters before a meeting with Tomas Ojea Quintana, the U.N. special rapporteur on human rights in North Korea, at the U.N. Human Rights Office in Seoul, Tuesday. Newsis

'Issue should be on table in future inter-Korean talks'

Human rights experts including Phil Robertson, the deputy director of the Asia division of Human Rights Watch, agree that it is important to keep pressing North Korea's ruling elite to take responsibility for obvious acts of wrongdoing such as gross violations of human rights, even if it may not bring a change in their behavior in the short term.

"The Yoon administration should send a formal, public request to Pyongyang, demanding all the information about the death of the ROK (South Korea) official, and continue raising this case, along with the cases of the South Koreans abducted by the North over the years, as part of its public and private diplomacy with North Korea," Robertson said.

"Yoon should be very clear that the days of Pyongyang using blustering rhetoric to bully South Korea are over, and that all issues, including human rights abuses of all types, will be on the table in any North-South discussions," he continued.

Robertson also welcomed the increasing efforts to establish the truth behind the incident. Without solid facts, he said, no one takes responsibility. He gave an example of the U.S. federal court ruling on the case of Otto Warmbier, who died soon after being released by North Korea in 2017.

"A U.S. federal court correctly found that North Korea was guilty in the torture and death of Warmbier, and ordered Pyongyang to pay his parents $501 million. But not surprisingly, as far as we know, no one in the DPRK (North Korea) has been held responsible for that crime. It would be interesting to see whether there is a similar legal avenue in South Korea for the family of the South Korean official to sue the DPRK government for killing him and burning his body," Robertson said. "There has been no serious investigation (in South Korea) about what happened, just cover up and lies from the North, and sadly, a nodding acceptance of its mendacity by the Moon administration."

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