Kim In-ae, deputy spokesperson of South Korea's Ministry of Unification, reads a statement urging the immediate release of South Korean missionaries Kim Jung-wook, Kim Kook-kie and Choi Chun-gil, who are detained in North Korea, during a press briefing at Government Complex Seoul, Friday. - Photo: Yonhap
SEOUL: The unification ministry on Friday (March 14) called for the immediate and unconditional release of three South Korean missionaries held in North Korea, following the United Nations' adoption of a report demanding their release.
The ministry issued the call a day after the UN Human Rights Council's Working Group on Arbitrary Detention adopted opinions calling for North Korea to release the three South Korean Christian missionaries.
The three -- Kim Jung-wook, Kim Kook-kie and Choi Chun-gil -- have been detained in North Korea since their arrest between 2013-2014 on charges of spying for South Korea's intelligence agency.
All of them were arrested while conducting missionary work based around the Chinese border city of Dandong and were sentenced to life in labour.
In the opinions adopted Thursday, the UN working group concluded that the arrest and detention of the three constitute an illegal and arbitrary deprivation of their freedom, calling for their immediate release, as well as reparations and an independent investigation into their cases.
"The opinions adopted by the UN working group officially confirmed that the detention of these individuals was illegal and clearly violates international law," according to the statement issued in the name of the unification ministry spokesperson, Koo Byoung-sam.
"The government once again strongly denounces North Korea's illegal act and calls for the immediate and unconditional release of our nationals," it said.
The statement also urged North Korea to seriously heed the warning issued by the UN adoption of such opinions, calling for its immediate compliance.
The government will do its utmost in cooperation with other countries, the international community and religious circles for the immediate resolution of the issue, it added.
The UN working group's latest action was in response to a petition filed last year by the missionaries' families, seeking the international organisation's judgment on the detention.
The working group cited the withholding of the legal basis for the missionaries' arrest and detention, violations of their freedom of expression and deprivation of their right to a fair judgment as grounds for its conclusion.
All foreigners arrested and detained by North Korea, including Americans, have been released, but the regime remains adamant about the six South Korean captives, including the three missionaries, without confirming whether they are alive.
In a similar action last November, the working group called for North Korea to release Kim Cheol-ok, a North Korean defector among hundreds of escapees deported to the home country by China. The call, however, remains unanswered. - Yonhap
