Defector group asks rights panel to block new label for arrivals
North Korean defector Mr. Kim views the city center area through a window, in Seoul, South Korea, 17 January 2024 (issued 22 January 2024). Mr. Kim is one of few North Koreans who managed to flee and directly reach the South between 2020 and 2023 due to strict border closures during the Covid pandemic. On the night of 06 May 2023, he and his family were able to quietly sail through patrolled waters in the Yellow Sea and cut across the maritime border between both Koreas. Mr. Kim has refused to give his full name in order to protect relatives on both sides of the border. File. Photo by JEON HEON-KYUN/ EPA
Jan. 20 (Asia Today) — A group of North Korean defectors on Tuesday petitioned South Korea’s National Human Rights Commission to block the Unification Ministry’s move to change how defectors are labeled, saying the shift could undermine their identity and deepen divisions within the community.
The group, which calls itself the Association of North Korean Defectors Opposing the Forced Use of the Term “North-bound residents,” said the ministry’s preferred wording goes beyond accommodating the choice of some defectors and amounts to imposing a new designation on most of them.
Lee Eun-taek, the group’s representative, said in a statement that the change risks infringing on “the identity and dignity that individual defectors have chosen for themselves” and is fueling unnecessary conflict among defectors.
“What we seek to protect is the rights and identity of those who have chosen to live as North Korean defectors,” Lee said, adding that diverse views within the community should be respected and that no term should be used to erase someone else’s identity.
Lee urged the commission to prevent defectors from being deprived of the right to choose how they are identified, saying “a name” reflects a person’s life experience and should not be decided by state power or politicians.
The Unification Ministry said in last year’s work report that it intended to change the terms “North Korean defectors” and “North Korean refugees” to “North-bound residents.” The ministry has used the new phrasing internally since this year and plans to adopt it as legal terminology once it becomes socially established, the report said.
— Reported by Asia Today; translated by UPI
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