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| ▲ Here is the picture of Shin sook-ja and her two daughters. The woman in the middle is Shin Sook-ja. | ||
Shin Sook ja was born in 1942 and graduated schools in Tongyeong, South of Gyeongsang-do. She went to Germany in the 1960s as a nurse when she was in her 20s. In Germany, she met Oh Kil-nam, a Seoul University student, who was studying at there. They fell in love and got married in 1975. They had two daughters and lived a happy life.
However, their life began to fall apart in 1985. Around that period, Shin Sook-ja was sick due to a traffic accident and was suffering from the inflammation of her liver. North Korean agents made contact with them and promised that if they came to North Korea, they would be offered the best treatment for her illness and a guaranteed job as a professor. At first, the family rejected the offer. However, composer Yoon Lee-sang and his daughter continued to entice them and in the end, the family went to North Korea on December, 1985. Right after moving to North Korea, the family found out that they had made the wrong choice. Therefore, Oh Kil-nam escaped from North Korea by pretending to do work for them, by attracting students studying abroad. Before he left, his wife said, “Prevent what happened to our family from ever happening again, and don’t you ever come back here. Just think and believe that your family members are dead.” After his escape, it is known that the wife and two daughters were imprisoned in a political concentration camp from 1987 to 2003.
Now, because he is very old, Oh Kil-nam really wants to see his family before everything ends. Therefore, many people have tried to help him. Last November, the INCK asked OHCHR (Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights) to rescue Shin Sook-ja and her two daughters. The UN conveyed a letter asking the North Korean government to send the family back to South Korea on March 1st. However, the reply was just one piece of paper which read “Your wife died from inflammation of the liver. In addition, your daughters do not think of you as their father because you abandoned your family and caused Shin Sook-ja’s death.” They also added that his daughters do not want to see Oh Kil-nam again. This one paper was sent back on April 27th. Oh Kil-nam said that this letter was not reasonable and added that he cannot take this reply as a formal notification. Documents sent to the UN must have content and be formal. The contents must tell why, when and how she died and show proof. In addition, ‘Article 9 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights’ calls for the end of arbitrary detention for all prisoners. INCK emphasized that North Korea should show her death certificate and send back Shin Sook-ja’s remains.This case doesn't only apply to one family. There are many similar cases. It is found that more than six families have sent official inquiries about if their family members are still alive after their imprisonment. Megumi Yokota was kidnapped by North Korea in the 1970s; in 2002 her ashes were returned to Japan. However, when DNA tests were conducted, it was discovered that the remains were not hers. With North Korea’s past we cannot just believe their saying and their barbarity is slowly appearing.
These cases make us all think again about North Korea’s human rights and the lives the population lead. As we all know, people in North Korea cannot move around freely and it’s hard to travel even within the country. They also cannot sell their products as they want, which is their only way to live. Moreover, when people are sent to reformation institutions, they suffer through unimaginable cruelty. They do medical experiments on living people. Even people die, they don’t tell about the death to family. Do you know if a woman rides a bike with pants on, the supervisor seizes the bike? If they don’t want to get arrested, women have to wear skirts. It is very small and trivial problem. However, if this kind of small thing is not secure, I wonder what other more big and important human rights are violated.
Jeung Young-tae, Senior Research Fellow in KINU, said that North Korea tried to lure South Korea’s men of society to maintain dictatorship. While doing this project, not only Shin Sook-ja’s family but also other families became victims. He also added, “In the process of maintaining dictatorship, the human rights in North Korea got worse. To secure the human rights, North Korea has to try to change from dictatorship to democracy.”When we hear about cases like this, we have to take action to prevent this kind of sad story from ever happening again. This was the first time a case like this got a response from North Korea. If people around the world had not considered this event to be serious, and had not taken action, we still would not have gotten a reply from North Korea. Also, North Korea’s response will show how Kim Jung-eun is seen by the world and if he will improve human rights in North Korea. To get answers and not make more victims, we have to take more interest and take more action as we are doing now.