Controversy has sparked over the South Korean government’s mishandling of a diplomatic issue surrounding a human rights activist who was allegedly the victim of brutal treatment during his four-month detention in China.

The North Korea-sympathizer-turned-human rights activist Kim Young-hwan was deported from China following a 114-day detention on charges of endangering China’s national security.

Kim went to China to discuss cooperation on North human rights improvement and assistance for North Korean defectors with other activists there.

About a month after he was unexpectedly arrested by a Chinese intelligence unit on March 29, he met with Korean consuls in Shenyang, northeast China.

At the first meeting, the consuls allegedly asked him whether there was any abuse during his imprisonment, but Kim wasn’t able to elaborate about his ordeal because the meeting was held at a room in the national security department where Chinese authorities were placed.

What he could do was hint at the brutal conditions in prison by saying “How can we discuss such issue in here?” and the embassy official seemed to understand.

However, Kim said the Foreign Ministry didn’t grasp the case nor posed a diplomatic complaint to China formally or informally until the second meeting set a month and a half later.

“At that time, we were in the process of negotiating with China to solve the problem related to Kim. We only got impressions (that he may have been tortured) from the first meeting so we requested another talk,” an official at the ministry defended.

Diplomatic circles reproached the government’s lukewarm responses, saying that it should have taken active steps after hearing that Kim had been tortured at the second talks held on June 11.

They also pointed out that if China denied bringing the case to light, the government should have put more pressure on China by making it a public issue and not holding the suspicion behind closed doors.

“Even though we have not been clamoring about the issue, we took it seriously and lodged a complaint with China through diplomatic channels,” the ministry official said, objecting to the harsh comments.

By Park Han-na
(hnpark@heraldcorp.com)