Jin Gyeong-suk

Jin Gyeong -suk (* June 24, 1980, † 2005) was a North Korean woman who in 2002 succeeded to escape to South Korea and two years later was deported from China forcibly returned to North Korea.

Abduction

In August 2004, Jin Gyeong -suk, which now had a South Korean passport, and her husband Mun Jeong -hun traveled under the pretext of honeymoon in Jilin Province, North China. The couple had planned on behalf of a Japanese production company to make a video about the involvement of North Korea in the drug business. For this purpose they met on the Chinese side of the Tumen River, which forms the border between China and North Korea, with an alleged middleman. This should smuggle a video camera to North Korea to make evidence -heavy movies. But the meeting turned out to be the case: Jin and her husband were four men dressed as road workers, presumably agents of the North Korean secret service raided. While the husband still could get to safety in time, Jin Gyeong -suk was forced into a bag and dragged across the Tumen River into North Korea. Subsequent research revealed that she was taken to the location in the northern province of Hamgyong internment Chongjin, where she was interrogated and tortured.

Political consequences

The case contained a certain amount of political sensitivity, and for two reasons:

First, since Jin Gyeong -suk had a South Korean passport, it was from around the kidnapping of a South Korean from Chinese soil. Thus, South Korea and China were involved in the case. As a North Korean citizen Jin Gyeong- suks legal situation would have been different as China extradite refugees to North Korea. Chinese authorities claimed Jin Gyeong -suk would have already been found at their abduction on North Korean territory to help you escape her sister.

Secondly, it was discussed whether Jin Gyeong -suk had been abducted or arrested only after North Korean law. The law states that the espionage suspect foreigners - and as such was Jin Gyeong -suk to consider because of their South Korean passport - with up to seven years hard labor can be punished. A government official said: "We warn refugees always that China is a dangerous place for them, but such incidents happen, we can not understand how one can claim the right to free travel and then try as North Korean defectors to sell a North Korean video.. "

Activities for the Liberation of

The case caused a sensation in the Asian media. It switched itself a human right organizations and made ​​efforts for the release of Jin Gyeong -suk and tried to find out whether it was still alive. The family created a petition to the then South Korean President Roh Moo -hyun and urged a return of Jin Gyeong -suk to South Korea, without receiving a response from the president.

Jin Gyeong -suk died at the camp Chongjin from the effects of torture.