Ministry of Unification "Requesting North Korea to Extradite Sexual Assault Suspect, Will Make Comprehensive Judgment"

A man in his 20s who is presumed to have recently defected to North Korea, Kim Mo (24), a North Korean defector, was under police investigation and had an arrest warrant issued last month on charges of sexually assaulting an acquaintance woman at his home.
Authorities have narrowed down his defection to 2017, and among defectors from that period, Kim, who has been unreachable, is identified as a likely defector to the North and is currently under investigation.
The photo shows Kim before his defection while he was living in South Korea.

The government has stated that it will "make a comprehensive judgment" on whether to demand the repatriation of a North Korean defector, who is presumed to have defected to the North while under police investigation in South Korea for sexual assault charges.

At a regular briefing held at the Government Seoul Office Complex, Unification Ministry spokesperson Yeo Sang-gi responded to related questions by saying, "Since a detailed investigation is currently underway by relevant agencies, we will make a judgment based on the investigation results, the inter-Korean relationship situation, and past practices."

After it was revealed that the defector who recently re-entered North Korea was a suspect under police investigation in South Korea for sexual assault, some argued that, based on the precedent of the South Korean government repatriating two North Korean fishermen who killed their crewmates and crossed into the East Sea last November, the government should also demand repatriation from the North this time.

Regarding calls to transfer North Korean defector-related affairs from the Unification Ministry to other ministries such as the Ministry of the Interior and Safety in light of this incident, the spokesperson avoided a direct answer, stating, "We will also comprehensively review that issue and organize our position."

On the trend of the spread of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) in North Korea, spokesperson Yeo said, "North Korea uses the term 'suspected patients' rather than confirmed cases regarding defectors re-entering, so it is understood that there are officially no COVID-19 infections in North Korea yet."

Regarding claims by defector organizations that the Unification Ministry's administrative inspections infringe on 'freedom of association,' the spokesperson said, "It has nothing to do with freedom of association."

Yeo added, "The administrative inspections are conducted according to the law, and they are neither compulsory investigations nor inquiries. They are based on the cooperation of the relevant organizations." She further explained, "This is not a special matter but a measure to verify the credibility of registered organizations under the Unification Ministry."

Earlier, the Unification Ministry decided to conduct administrative inspections of registered corporations following controversies over the distribution of leaflets to North Korea by defector organizations, and some North Korean human rights groups have immediately opposed this, calling it "discrimination" and "oppression."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.