S. Korea cautious about taking detention issue to global stage

By Lee Chi-dong

SEOUL, July 15 — The South Korean government is wrestling over how to raise the issue of a South Korean worker detained in North Korea at a regional security forum to be held in Thailand next week, diplomatic sources said Wednesday.

Foreign Minister Yu Myung-hwan said at a press briefing early this month that he will "make reference" to the "grave issue related to human rights" at the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF), a meeting of foreign ministers from 27 nations including the US, China, Russia, Japan, and Southeast Asian nations. The comments were in response to a reporter's question and Yu did not elaborate.

It was still unclear whether he unveiled any concrete plan to raise the issue after consultations with the presidential office and the Unification Ministry, which is in charge of Seoul's policy on Pyongyang.

Speaking privately to reporters later, some ministry officials questioned the appropriateness of "globalizing" what they say is an inter-Korean issue.

The 44-year-old worker at the Kaesong industrial park, located just north of the inter-Korean border, was taken into custody by North Korean authorities in late March on charges of criticizing the communist nation's political system and attempting to persuade a North Korean woman to defect to the South.

The North has held him incommunicado without giving information to South Korean officials on his whereabouts.

The officials recalled efforts by the South Korean minister at the previous ARF session in Singapore last year to address the shooting death of a South Korean tourist by a North Korean guard near the country's Mount Kumgang resort.

Seoul attempted to have references to the shooting put into the chairman's statement summarizing the results of the annual session, but the North Korean delegation, led by Foreign Minister Pak Ui-chun, protested the move and the Singaporean government omitted related wording from the final draft. Critics cited Seoul's "diplomatically amateurish" campaign, which they said only worsened relations with Pyongyang.

"South Korean officials do not want such a case to recur. The families of the detainee are also worried about a possible negative impact," an informed diplomatic source said.

"But the dilemma is that Minister Yu openly said he will raise the detention issue at the ARF. Minister Yu's aides proposed that he talk informally about the detention issue in his bilateral meeting with other ministers to be held on the sidelines of the ARF, and not to raise it at multilateral sessions."

In April, the South Korean minister told lawmakers that his ministry would take the detention issue to the U.N. Human Rights Council. The ministry was prevented from filing a petition with the council, however, due to opposition from the detained worker's family. (PNA/Yonhap)

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