In the process of capture by the navy, the naval communication and command of the three days south of the Northern Limit Line became the key, as the claims of ‘defectors’ and ‘arrest after escape’ conflicted over the application of ‘Korean nationals’ to North Korean fishermen defectors.
On the 11th, the Ministry of Unification said, "Considering that North Korean fishermen are citizens of the Republic of Korea under the Constitution, and the various damages they will incur if they are handed over to North Korea, the repatriation of North Korean fishermen to North Korea is clearly wrong." interview), and 'North Korean defectors' were applied.
“There is no precedent for our courts to exercise criminal jurisdiction in relation to heinous crimes committed by North Koreans against other North Koreans in North Korea,” said Chung Eui-yong, former head of the National Security Office. It is virtually impossible to punish them based on their confession alone,” he said.
Choi Young-beom, chief of public relations at the presidential office, said on the 17th, “The essence of the matter is that the North Korean defectors, who should be dealt with according to our law, are returned to their extremities as the North wants them.”
Republican Congressman Chris Smith said in a statement on the 12th, "It is painful to see pictures of fishermen who have requested defection to be forcibly returned to North Korea, a communist country, against their will and without due legal process."
Minister Kwon Young-se told reporters at the National Assembly on the 13th that, "Once you come down to our territory, you must treat the people well."
President Kang In-sun, spokesman for the President of the Republic of Korea, said on the 13th, "If they were forcibly repatriated to North Korea even though they had expressed their intention to defect, it would be a crime against humanity and humanity that violated both international law and the Constitution."
The Hankyoreh reported the case in <'Expulsion of 16 murderers' to 'Forcible repatriation to North Korea as a crime against humanity'>. Beginning, in August 2019, leaving Kimchaek Port on a squid fishing boat, while fishing in Russian and North Korean waters, they killed the captain and two other fishermen for conspiring with one other crew member and committing harsh acts. To conceal the crime, they also killed and buried 13 other crew members one after another. One person was caught while going to Gimchaek Port to raise funds for escape. The two remaining people boarded a boat and went south to the Northern Limit Line in the East Sea to avoid being pursued by a North Korean patrol boat.
Representative Yoo Sang-beom (People's Power) issued a constitutional judgment on the 14th, stating, "North Korean fishermen who are considered to be South Korean nationals under the Constitution are not subject to deportation under the Immigration Control Act."
On the 21st of last month, President Yoon Seok-yeol applied the term ‘defective Korean’, saying, “Once you enter the country, you are considered a citizen of the Republic of Korea according to our constitution.”
Regarding the incident, the Hankyoreh revealed that "they returned to the sea and escaped to the North for three days without failing the control of the navy," and then "they were captured and transported by our Navy's special forces", 'repeated escape from the North' applied and collided with President Yoon's 'voluntarily defector Korean'.
The key to the case is to investigate the reality of military communications and tracking radar military command as to whether or not they “fled” the South Korean navy for three days after going south of the Northern Limit Line from October 31 to November 2, 2019.
U.S. Attorney Jared Genser told Voice of America on the 18th, “It is clear that the fact that fishermen were sent back in just a few days knowing that they could be executed in North Korea is a clear violation of the International Refugee Convention. It makes it clear that those who are at risk of being persecuted in their own country due to other circumstances should not be repatriated to their home country without a review on whether their claims are clear.”
If a North Korean fisherman crosses the Northern Limit Line on a powered ship, then crosses over to the North Korean waters, and then crosses again, he is a North Korean fisherman, and if he asks the navy for relief first, the 'decision to repatriate to North Korea' is an abuse of executive authority.
According to the Maritime Law, the public propaganda of the video repatriated to North Korea released by the Ministry of Unification on the 19th is an abuse of administrative authority over the 'determination of defection during domestic interrogation' of fishermen captured at sea as North Korean residents.