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\nIf South Korea had passed a law protecting the rights of North Korean defectors then the recent case of nine young North Koreans who were deported from Laos and returned to an uncertain fate in North Korea would never have happened, according to Saenuri Party lawmaker Ha Tae Kyung.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe would have been able to prevent this incident if the North Korea Human Rights Act had been passed,\u201d Ha told a press conference in Seoul earlier today. Therefore, he went on, \u201cWe absolutely must take the opportunity presented by this incident to pass the Act.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cDefectors must not suffer any more harm as a result of the insincere, inadequate treatment of South Korean embassies,\u201d he went on, declaring that a core problem that led to the Laos scandal was an absence of communication between human rights NGOs and the South Korean embassy in the Laotian capital, Vientiane.<\/p>\n
\u201cCommunications between the North Korean human rights group and the embassy were not smooth,\u201d he said. \u201cIf the North Korean Human Rights Act had been passed so there was a North Korean Human Rights Foundation, then it would have been able to adequately play the role of communication bridge between the NGO and government servants, and we would have been able to prevent this incident.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ha was also critical of the personnel limitations of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, stating, \u201cThe manpower of the Laos embassy is not even half that of the North Korean one there. Notably, there is only one press attache, meaning that their information gathering capacity is extremely low.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cOne of the difficulties that North Korean human rights groups plead is the payment of fines,\u201d he added. \u201cThe $300 fine demanded in Laos is a lot of money for a defector. If those who cannot pay it are detained for an extended period of time it increases their risk of being deported.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cOne of the provisions of the Act is support for North Korean human rights groups,\u201d he pointed out. \u201cFines would have ceased to be a problem (if it had been passed).\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
[imText1] If South Korea had passed a law protecting the rights of North Korean defectors then the recent case of nine young North Koreans who were deported from Laos and returned to an uncertain fate in North Korea would never have happened, according to Saenuri Party lawmaker Ha Tae Kyung. \u201cWe would have been able […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":151,"featured_media":23574,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wikipediapreview_detectlinks":true,"footnotes":""},"categories":[67],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23572","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\n