Taken! North Korea's Criminal Abduction of Citizens of Other Countries

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an individual and then refuse to acknowledge the person’s detention, placing them outside formal legal protection.25 While generally disappearances take place within the boundaries of individual states, they can also occur across borders. In addition to offending principles of sovereignty and territorial integrity, enforced disappearances and clandestine abductions are particularly egregious abuses of individual rights. In fact, the Rome Statute for the International Criminal Court and the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced 'LVDSSHDUDQFHV LGHQWLÀHV IRUFHG GLVDSSHDUDQFHV DV FULPHV DJDLQVW KXPDQLW\ 26 $OWKRXJK WKH '35. KDV QRW UDWLÀHG WKH &RQYHQWLRQ ZKLFK FDPH LQWR IRUFH LQ December of 2010, the prohibition against enforced disappearances is considered MXV FRJHQV under international law, meaning that the DPRK is bound by the principle even if the DPRK does not actually accede to the agreement. 27 It is clear that North Korea has engaged in practices that violate multiple international treaties and customary norms. These are enumerated below: Trespassing and Abducting Foreign Nationals As part of its abduction policy, DPRK operatives have illegally entered other states, abducted foreign nationals, made arbitrary arrests and detained foreign nationals for prolonged periods of time. One illustration of the DPRK’s policies has been its repeated abductions of South Koreans at sea. For example, in 1970, Lee -KH *XQ D 6RXWK .RUHDQ ÀVKHUPDQ DORQJ ZLWK WKH RWKHU FUHZ PHPEHUV IURP KLV ÀVKLQJ YHVVHO ZHUH FDSWXUHG DW VHD E\ '35. RIÀFLDOV DQG WUDQVSRUWHG WR 1RUWK Korea.28 7KH FDVH RI <XQ -RQJ VX DQG WKH RWKHU ÀVKHUPDQ DERDUG WKH VDPH boat, is another example. They were abducted at sea and forcibly transported to North Korea.29 Yun only escaped in 2008 after more than 30 years in North Korean captivity, having to leave his crewmembers behind. Still another example was the experience of Kaoru Hasuike—a twenty-yearold college student—and Yukiko Okudo—his twenty-two-year-old girlfriend—who were taken from a beach in Japan on July 31, 1978. The pair were forcibly abducted by North Korean operatives, tied up, gagged and put in two large bags, where they remained until they were transferred to a small boat, and then to a larger boat, 25

Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court art. 7, July 17, 1998, 2187 U.N.T.S. 90 (“The widespread RU V\VWHPDWLF SUDFWLFH RI HQIRUFHG GLVDSSHDUDQFH FRQVWLWXWHV D FULPH DJDLQVW KXPDQLW\ DV GHĂ€QHG LQ DSSOLFDEOH international law and shall attract the consequences provided for under such applicable international law.â€?). 26 Global Concepts, VXSUD note 3, at 16. However, customary norms or principles, even those which have attained MXV FRJHQV status, when not enshrined in binding treaties or international documents are inherently GLIĂ€FXOW WR DGGUHVV EHFDXVH WKHUH LV QR HDV\ MXGLFLDEOH ZD\ WR HQIRUFH WKHVH ULJKWV DJDLQVW RWKHU FRXQWULHV such as North Korea. 27 ,G 28 See ´0DQ Ă HHV 1 .RUHD DIWHU \HDUV Âľ %%& FRP -XQH DYDLODEOH DW http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/ hi/7444413.stm (last visited July 29, 2010). 29 See, VXSUD, Chapter 3, for more details.

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