The head of the national human rights watchdog said Friday that the petition regarding the 2019 deportation of two North Korean fishermen had to be dismissed due to “inherent limitations.”

At the press conference marking the completion of his first year in office, the National Human Rights Commission of Korea’s Chairperson Song Doo-hwan said that dismissing the petition was a decision “that had been made not to avoid making an opinion but because of its limited authority as an investigative agency.”

In November 2019, two North Korean fishermen were apparently repatriated against their will after the South Korean government determined the two were violent criminals who had murdered their fellow crew members with dubious intentions for defecting.

The following year, the Commission dropped a petition asking for an investigation into possible human rights violations of the two North Koreans, saying it did not have the capacity to investigate a case where the victims had been deported to North Korea.

Hanbyun, the lawyers’ group that filed the petition, took the dismissal to court last year. In March, the court ruled that the Commission revoke its decision to dismiss the petition.

Since then, another petition was submitted to the Commission by a civic group in July, which has been accepted and is now under investigation.

Song said that the Commission had to cease its investigations after the case had been reported to police.

“The laws bar the Commission from looking into cases that are being investigated by law enforcement or being tried at court. When there is an ongoing investigation or trial, the Commission is forced to dismiss the case,” he said.

“It’s regrettable that the role of the Commission can only be supplementary to other institutions.”

Song said that the Commission within its capacity still made efforts to determine if there had been any wrongdoings.

“When the petition was filed with the Commission, the two men had already been returned to North Korea,” he said.

“But it’s still necessary to look back and see if no rights violations had occurred over the process of their repatriation, and whether there is room for improving the existing systems to prevent a recurrence in the future.”

He said the Commission had asked for ministries involved for records on the repatriation some four times, but that they have not been cooperative, providing “no more than a general response.”

“The ministries said they couldn’t provide more information as the case concerned national security, after which point the Commission could not push any further,” he said.

“The National Human Rights Commission is a body that monitors and investigates possible abuses and violations, and then urges action to redress them, but its powers are restricted. Nor am I arguing that it should have the same authority and status as a law enforcement agency. Its role and function are different,” he said.

He said that “despite some limitations” the Commission will “continue to address and call out instances of human rights violations.”

Song, previously a Constitutional Court judge, was appointed as the Commission’s chairperson by former President Moon Jae-in in September last year.

By Kim Arin (arin@heraldcorp.com)