Mick Hartley

The movement to obtain the release of the Daughters of Tongyeong continues, with a Trek for Tongyeong:

Standing before the statue of Admiral Yi Sun Shin at the heart of Gwanhwamun Plaza today, the organizers of the ongoing campaign to save the Daughter of Tongyeong, Shin Suk Ja and her two children held aloft a banner today proclaiming ‘We Command Kim Jong Il! Release the Daughter of Tongyeong Immediately!’ to launch a 680km nationwide awareness-raising trek.

The trek will begin in Tongyeong on the southern coast of the peninsula tomorrow, November 19th.

The main organizer of the event, Choi Hong Jae, reading aloud from a statement, explained, “This trek will form a bridge gathering the people’s hope for the release of the Daughter of Tongyeong and her daughters, and will also act as a starting flare for the release of the remaining 517 abductees”. After the short statement Choi bowed 24 times, one for every year of Shin Suk Ja’s imprisonment.

“Shin Suk Ja is a true patriot who was influenced at a young age by South Korean General Yi Sun Sin’s bravery. Even in the valley of death she sacrificed herself for Dr. Oh Kil Nam,” he added, going on, “The purpose of this trek is a promise to rescue those daughters.”

For background here's the story of Oh Kil-nam. As a left-wing graduate student in Germany in the Eighties, he persuaded his wife Shin Suk Ja and their two young daughters to move to North Korea, lured by false promises of treatment for the wife's hepatitis. Oh immediately realised his mistake, and defected (at his wife's insistence) as soon as the opportunity arose, when he was sent abroad to recruit more agents for the DPRK. Since then – 25 years ago – wife and daughters have been held in the North's political prison camps. 

Amnesty International considers them to be prisoners of conscience and has called for their immediate and unconditional release:

Shin Sook-ja and her two daughters are among an estimated 50,000 men, women and children who are currently held in Yodok political prison camp. Yodok is one of six known camps in North Korea in which 200,000 political prisoners and their families are held. Inmates, including children, are tortured and forced to work in dangerous conditions. The combination of hazardous conditions, forced labor, malnutrition, beatings, inadequate medical care and unhygienic living conditions result in chronic illness, and many prisoners die in detention. 

The North Korean government denies the existence of political prison camps, even though their presence is confirmed by satellite photographs and by testimonies collected from former guards and inmates. Among those sent to the camps are people perceived to be critics of the regime, people who have performed their jobs inadequately, and people suspected of engaging in "anti-government" activities, including listening to TV or radio broadcasts from South Korea.

Family members of those suspected of crimes are also sent to camps like Yodok. This system of "guilt-by-association" is used to silence dissent and control the population through fear. Many of these inmates are never told why they have been imprisoned.

Authorities sent Shin Sook-ja, a radio announcer, and her daughters to Yodok in 1987 after her husband, Oh Kil-nam, requested political asylum abroad. Oh Kil-nam received letters from his family in 1988 and 1989, and photographs in 1991. However, a former inmate claims that Shin Sook-ja and her daughters were later moved to Yodok’s "total control zone." Oh Kil-nam has received no further information about his family since that time.

"Total control zones" are found in all of North Korea’s political prison camps. They are areas from which inmates are never released, except in very rare circumstances. Infants born in "total control zones" are imprisoned there for life.

Wiki have a useful Shin Suk-ja entry, and the Daily NK are reporting on the progress of the Trek.