South Korea and China signed a consular affairs agreement
last Thursday during President Xi Jinping’s state visit to Seoul, 12 years after the two sides first began negotiations on the matter in May 2002.
The agreement was signed by the two respective foreign
ministers, Yun Byung Se and Wang Yi, and will take effect 30 days after both
sides give notice that domestic legislative and administrative procedures have
been completed.
The South Korean government signed the agreement in order to
meet the growing need to provide protection to nationals in China. As ties
between Korea and China for business and leisure have increased in number since the two sides normalized relations in 1992, so
the number of incidents involving South Korean citizens has also risen, particularly in the last five years.
The essential features of the agreement include: ▲ notification of arrests or detentions within four days,
even where not requested by the detainee(s); ▲ consular access to detainee(s) within four days of arrest; ▲ immediate notification of a death
sentence, its application, or changes of status.
This is the third such consular affairs agreement adopted by
South Korea, following one with the United States in 1963, and another with Russia in 1992. It is
expected to lead to better bilateral cooperative relations, as it allows for
the institutionalization of specific regulations and norms of conduct.
Some of the impetus to forge an agreement came from an incident in 2012 where human rights activist Kim Young Hwan was
arrested by the Chinese Ministry of State Security in the northeast of the
country for “posing a grave threat to the national security of China.” Kim and
three other men were held for 114 days.
Though Kim immediately requested contact with South Korean consular
officials, the Chinese did not allow such access until 29 days after the arrest.
During this time, Kim suffered a week of systematic sleep deprivation, as well
as torture using high-voltage electricity. Daily NK journalist Lee Sang Yong was also detained at this time.
