The Chinese authorities have continue to withhold information about arrested South Korean human rights activist Kim Young-hwan, despite Seoul’s diplomatic efforts.

Kim, along with three other South Koreans, has been in the Chinese Ministry of State Security’s custody since March 29 on charges of “damaging national security.” 

Kim is a former pro-North Korean movement leader who turned to promoting human rights in North Korea in the 1990s, and currently works as a researcher at the Network for North Korean Democracy and Human Rights.

The Chinese authorities have not elaborated on their charges, and only Kim has met with a South Korean diplomat since the arrest in Dalian, Liaoning Province. He left South Korea on March 23.

“Kim met with the consul 28 days after he was incarcerated. Regarding the other three, the Chinese authorities have sent us handwritten statements from them declining to meet with our officials, and we are currently trying to verify their authenticity,” a Foreign Ministry official said.

“Though the ministry has been working to affect their release, no real results have been forthcoming. The fact that the Chinese authorities are withholding information about their exact charges is making the situation more difficult.”

According to the Committee for Release of North Korean Human Rights, the South Korean consulate general who visited Kim in April was prevented from meeting with the other three detainees by the Chinese authorities.

“The three other Koreans ― Yoo Jae-gil, Kang Shin-sam and Lee Sang-yong ― were also arrested in Dalian, but the Liaoning province branch of the Ministry of State Security has not revealed why they are detained, nor where they are currently held,” the committee said in a statement.

“The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has been working on resolving the issue, and has requested an attorney, but as far as we know the Chinese government is not responding,” a Network for North Korean Democracy and Human Rights official said.

Before turning to fight for North Korean human rights and the democratization of the country, Kim spent the 1980s and early 1990s as a key member of the pro-North Korean student movement.

Soon after enrolling at Seoul National University in 1982, Kim became involved in the then-widespread anti-government student movement. During this time he also wrote letters promoting the concept of juche ― a political principle established by North Korean founder Kim Il-sung ― under the penname “Kang-chul.”

By 1986 he was a central member of the movement and became a founding member of the “Federation of Students for Saving the Country.” The organization is considered to be the first student organization with connections to National Liberation, a strong pro-Pyongyang movement based on the juche concept. In 1989, he was contacted by a North Korean spy and joined the Workers’ Party of North Korea. He illegally entered North Korea in 1991 where he met with Kim Il-sung.

In the following year he participated in the founding of the Minhyukdang or the “People’s Democratic Revolutionary Party.” However, in the mid-1990s he switched gides to fight against human rights abuse. In 1997, he initiated the dissolution of Minhyukdang. However, investigations by the National Intelligence Service led to the arrest of the group’s key members, including Kim and Unified Progress Party lawmaker-elect Lee Seok-ki, in 1999 on charges of espionage. Kim, however, was not indicted for his part in dissolving Minhyukdang.

By Choi He-suk  (cheesuk@heraldcorp.com)