The daughter of a late renowned South Korean composer has filed a complaint against a high-profile South Korean man whose family members are being held in North Korea, an official said Saturday.
The move by Yun Isang’s daughter comes amid a growing public campaign for the return of Oh Kil-nam’s wife and two daughters who are believed to have been held in a North Korean political prison camp for more than two decades.
Oh has claimed his family was lured to North Korea in 1985 after he got a doctorate in economics in West Germany. Oh said he was influenced by Yun’s letter and subsequent attempts by Yun’s associates to coax him into going to North Korea.
Yun’s daughter lodged a complaint with the prosecutors’ office in the southern South Korean port city of Tongyeong on Friday, according to an official at the local prosecutors’ office.
Yun and Oh’s wife were both born in Tongyeong.
The daughter, 61, accused Oh of defaming her father’s reputation by implying her father persuaded Oh to go to North Korea.
“Oh’s allegation is a lie,” the daughter said in the compliant, adding Oh has never made the letter public.
Oh said Saturday he will comply with the investigation by prosecutors, though he quickly dismissed the accusation by Yun’s daughter.
“Yun told me in a 1985 letter that it would be good for me to contribute to North Korea’s economic development and asked me to actively work for a unification project,” Oh told Yonhap News Agency.
Yun is a controversial figure. Some say he is one of the country’s greatest composers, but others accuse him of having spied for North Korea, the South’s arch rival during the Cold War era.
Oh said the composer did not directly ask him to go to North Korea in the letter, but Yun’s pro-North Korean associates in West Germany later came to his home to persuade him to go to Pyongyang.
Oh said he later lost the letter.
“I went to North Korea because I thought that I could contribute to North Korea’s economic development,” Oh said.
However, Oh fled the North in 1986 before returning to South Korea, an escape that led to the detention of his wife and two daughters in a political prison camp.
Several North Korean defectors in the South have testified they had met Oh’s family in the prison camp before they fled to South Korea.
Oh has been at the forefront of the campaign in recent months to try to get his wife and daughters out of North Korea.
Last month, United Nations’ envoy on North Korean human rights, Marzuki Darusman, met with Oh in Seoul and promised to work toward the return of his family.
