North Korean Agent Arrested for Abduction of Christian Missionary
An alleged North Korean spy was arrested in South Korea on charges of abducting a Christian pastor and bringing him to the communist North in 2000, officials and news reports said Tuesday.
An alleged North Korean spy was arrested in South Korea on charges of abducting a Christian pastor and bringing him to the communist North in 2000, officials and news reports said Tuesday.
As reported by the Chosun Ilbo news agency, 35-year-old man Yoo Young-hwa was arrested on Saturday, three years after entering South Korea in August 2001. During a hearing at the Seoul District Court on Saturday at which charges were brought against him in relation to the kidnapping of South Korean pastor Kim Dong-shik, Yoo admitted to being an agent of North Korea's State Safety and Security Agency.
“He frequently went back and forth between China and North Korea, and was tasked with catching and forcefully repatriating North Korean defectors and the go-betweens helping them in China," a public security official from the Seoul Central District Public Prosecutors' Office stated.
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The official also said that Yoo received instructions and operational funds from the communist North and was known to have colluded in a score of abductions similar to that of Kim’s.
Kim, who was engaged in missionary activities in northern China, reportedly disappeared four years ago while helping North Koreans living in hiding in China after fleeing their communist homeland.
Although the whereabouts of Kim have been unknown since his disappearance, South Korea has believed that Kim was kidnapped and taken to North Korea. Relatives and human rights activists have said Kim became a target of North Korean agents after he arranged for North Korean refugees to defect to South Korea.
It is believed that tens of thousands of North Koreans are living in China after fleeing the hunger and political oppression in their homeland.
According to the International Religious Freedom Report 2004 released by the U.S. Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor Prison, “conditions are harsh” in North Korea and “starvation and forced labor are common.”
“Visitors to the country have observed prisoners being marched in leg irons, metal collars, or shackles. Sanitation is poor, and prisoners reported having no change of clothing during months of detention,” the Sept. 15 report stated.
The Chosun Ilbo reports that the Seoul-based Citizen's Coalition for Human Rights of Abductees and North Korean Refugees has urged South Korea to bring Kim back from North Korea. Meanwhile, South Korean authorities are reportedly are tracking down 10 other accomplices involved in Kim's abduction.
