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A fisherman abducted by North Korea 31 years ago was finally on his way home on Friday. But Koreans flew into an uproar Thursday as they learned of the manner in which the South Korean consulate in Shenyang responded to his initial desperate pleas for help after he fled the Stalinist country.
Hiding in a safe house in China, Choi Uk-il(67) and his wife from the South, Yang Jeong-ja (66), dialed the consulate Tuesday morning to beg for help. "I am Choi Uk-il and I was a crew member of the trawler Cheonwangho abducted to the North from the East Sea in 1975. Since that time I have been living in the North but I resolved to return home and escaped. I am in China now. Can I talk to the consul?"
The operator said she would put him in touch with the proper department. A male consular employee who took the call said, "I will introduce you to the person in charge," and passed Choi to a female employee. Her words: "We only deal with cases and accidents involving South Koreans in the three provinces in Northeast China and we don't address any North Korean defector issues."
Choi's wife got on the line and told the woman that Choi Sung-yong, president of the activist group Family Assembly Abducted to North Korea, had notified the Foreign Ministry and the Unification Ministry of Choi's plight on December 26. "My husband is not a North Korean defector. He is South Korean. We sent an official letter to the Unification Ministry and the Foreign Ministry asking for help. Haven't you received the letter?"
The consular employee denied getting any letter. "We have received no direction regarding this matter from the head office. You should call the South Korean government." She then passed their call to the department dealing with North Korean defectors, but nobody answered.
When the couple called again and asked for the person in charge of defector issues, the same woman got on the line. "You just called a moment ago," she scolded. Only after Yang described their urgent situation did she gave them the mobile phone number of the proper official.
But the official handling defectors proved equally unhelpful, demanding to know who gave them his phone number. When the couple called the consulate later, he confirmed Choi's identity, told them, "I'll call you later," and that was it.
A full day passed with no help from the consulate. Yang flew back to South Korea Wednesday afternoon, leaving her husband behind.
Two months ago, South Koreans were enraged by a similar fiasco. That time, a video broadcast documented the pleas of Chang Mu-hwan, an escaped prisoner of war who called the Korean Embassy in China in 1998. The woman who took Chang's call for help told him simply, "Oh no we can't," and hung up.
The Foreign Ministry posted an apology on its website (www.mofat.go.kr) late Thursday night after coming under fire thanks to the broadcast of a video clip of the consular employee's dealings with Choi. The apology, from Lee Hyuck, chief of the Foreign Ministry's Asia-Pacific Affairs Bureau, says "We apologize from the bottom of our heart for the controversy due to insincere responses from our consular employees in Shenyang, China, to the abducted fisherman who called to ask for help."
On Friday morning, a government official said Choi has been handed over to the South Korean side and is expected to arrive here soon.
(englishnews@chosun.com )
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