With the controversy surrounding the arrival of North Korean restaurant workers in 2016 snowballing, a lawyers’ group on Sunday urged the South Korean government to confirm the facts before it is “too late.”

The narrative involving the 2016 incident took a sharp turn in May, when restaurant manager Heo Gang-il claimed in an interview with local network JTBC that he had tricked the workers into traveling to South Korea and that the South’s National Intelligence Service had orchestrated their defection. Heo had defected to the South along with the female employees.
 

“The current administration is turning a blind eye to the issue because it will have to deal with a massive blow once they get to the bottom of it,” Jang Kyung-uk, an attorney for Lawyers for a Democratic Society, better known as “Minbyun,” told The Korea Herald.

“But they must swiftly conduct an official investigation and deal with the consequences sooner or later -- though they may not be the administration responsible for the scheme -- because silence in this case could be translated into an act of complicity (with the previous administration). Follow-up measures can be drawn once the truth is out.”

Minbyun has continued to question the nature of the mass arrival in 2016 and secured power of attorney from the workers’ families via a US national residing in China, not long after the workers entered South Korea. Rumors have persisted since the beginning that they had been abducted for political purposes.

The issue has been receiving more attention since last week after Tomas Ojea Quintana, the UN special rapporteur on human rights in North Korea, interviewed some of the workers during his weeklong stay in Seoul. He called on South Korea to carry out a thorough investigation as he received the impression that they had arrived in the country without the knowledge of where they were headed.

Despite Quintana’s announcement, the liberal Moon Jae-in administration has been adamant in claiming that the mass defection was carried out on the workers’ own volition.

“We believe that they entered (South Korea) of their own free will and there are no additional matters to be mentioned,” Baik Tae-hyun, a spokesman for the Ministry of Unification, said during a regular press briefing Wednesday.

Questioned about the difference between Seoul and Quintana’s positions, Baik avoided a direct response, reiterating that “no change” has been made to its previous stance.

The issue is expected to gain even more traction, as Heo gave further details of his story to Yonhap News Agency on Sunday, claiming that he had been a secret collaborator for the South Korean spy agency and was initially told that he could acquire South Korean nationality and be allowed to operate a restaurant with the workers in a Southeast Asian nation, if he agreed to cooperate with the NIS’ plan. When he showed signs of hesitation, the NIS threatened to blow his cover to North Korean authorities, he added.

The manager said the issue must be revealed to the public and the Moon administration and the NIS would not be able to “cover up” any longer, as the UN has started to intervene in the matter.

“The government is so concerned about the public sentiment and support that it does not fully realize it is at risk of breaching the international law. It’s also about the personal lives of the workers -- they are suffering from poverty and did not receive full support from the government regarding their college education,” Jang said.

Jang also pointed out that the matter may blow up into a diplomatic issue, as it is believed that the alleged abduction took place on Chinese soil, where the restaurant was located.

North Korea has been repeatedly demanding the repatriation of the restaurant workers in recent years, accusing South Korea of abduction and setting it as a precondition for talks.

By Jung Min-kyung (mkjung@heraldcorp.com)