The clip, released by Seoul’s Ministry of Unification and widely circulated on YouTube, shows South Korean officials manhandling the pair across the Demilitarised Zone (DMZ) which separates North and South Korea. Several still images from the brief film were released by the ministry last week, prompting widespread anger in the South.
.jpg)
Unconfirmed reports claim that after their return to North Korea in 2019, the men were probably executed or imprisoned.
Lord Alton, Co-chairman of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on North Korea, has responded by sending a letter to recently elected South Korean president Yoon Seok-Youl, expressing his “deep sadness and concern” at the images, taken at a time when former President Moon Jae-in was in the Blue House.
The letter was sent on July 15 and co-signed by Timothy Cho, Inquiry Clerk, All-Party Parliamentary Group on North Korea, Benedict Rogers, the Deputy Chairman of the Conservative Party Human Rights Commission, Liberal Democrat Parliamentary candidate David Campanale, and North Korean Human Rights Activist Ji-Hyun Park.
They said: “We are now writing to you to urge your new government to investigate this case, to assess who ordered the repatriation of these two men and why, and to hold those responsible accountable for undermining South Korea’s values of the rule of law, democracy and its international obligations to uphold human rights norms and principles.”
Mr Cho, the North Korea spokesman for the Christian persecution charity Open Doors UK, who was himself repatriated by force, facing torture, later added: “I was in tears.
"It brought me trauma.
“I think every North Korean escapee who has experienced forced repatriation will understand.
“And you can only imagine how insecure escapees living in South Korea are feeling they watch this.”