South Korean Unification Minister Jo Myoung-Gyon Kowtows in Advance to High Ranking North Korean Official, Disallows Defector-turned-Journalist

Unification Minister denied the coverage of high-level talks between South Korea and North Korea by a Chosun Ilbo reporter, who is also a defector from North Korea.  “The Unification Ministry is busy pleasing Kim Jung-un,” “It’s difficult to tell if the Ministry of Unification is our country’s ministry or Kim Jong-un’s loyal group,”  “Accept lead actors (Kim Yong-chul, Ri Sun-kwon) in the Cheonan attacks and sinking station, but not a defector?”–such are the strong criticism from the defector community.

In an interview with Chosun Ilbo, Park Sang-hak, Standing Representative of North Korean Human Rights Group Association, said “Reporter Kim Myung-sung is a North Korean defector and at the same time a citizen of the Republic of Korea.” “Even North Korea’s Kim Yung-Chul didn’t say anything but the Unification Minister, who is supposed to help North Korean defectors settle, was the one who blocked (the journalist), and that is shocking.”  Park pointed out that “defectors are also one of our citizens,” and “this incident is Unification Ministry’s repression of the defectors and  an anti-constitutional act.”

When asked if reporter Kim was excluded because he is a defector, the Unification Ministry spokesperson said “it’s not” and “it’s inappropriate to say what the decision criterion was.” When asked “did the north side raise an objection?,” he said “the north side did not raise an objection. We made a comprehensive judgement ourselves” and said “rather than seeing it as excluding journalist Kim because he is well known from his active engagement, it should be seen as a special situation requiring the measure.” (truncated)