South Korean businessman and missionary Choi Chun-gil was arrested and imprisoned in North Korea in December 2014 on espionage charges. In June 2015 the Supreme Court sentenced Pastor Choi to hard labour for life. He is being held incommunicado and has had no contact with his family since his arrest.
LATEST NEWS (DECEMBER 2024) On 3 December, to mark ten years since Pastor Choi’s arrest, South Korea’s Ministry of Unification issued a “Statement on the 10th Year of the Arbitrary Detention of Choi Chun-gil in North Korea”.
South Korean businessman and missionary Choi Chun-gil was arrested on 4 December 2014 in North Korea and imprisoned on charges including spying for South Korea. Like two other South Korean missionaries who have been detained in North Korea for over a decade, Kim Kuk-gi and Kim Jong Uk, Pastor Choi (65) is serving a life sentence and is being held incommunicado, with no family contact since his arrest.
The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom reports that Pastor Choi was involved in transporting religious and humanitarian goods for North Koreans and was arrested after he was allegedly lured into going to North Korea.
His arrest was announced on 26 March 2015 by North Korea’s state news agency KCNA, along with the arrest of Kim Kuk-gi, a Presbyterian pastor and missionary. KCNA described them as “heinous terrorists” who operated from a base in the Chinese port city of Dandong, near the border with North Korea, and said they were spying for South Korea’s National Intelligence Service (NIS) and had brought in large quantities of forged currency. KCNA stated, “They zealously took part in an anti-DPRK smear campaign.”
The NIS said the charge that the two men were working for it was “absolutely groundless” and a spokesman for South Korea’s Unification Ministry, Lim Byeong-cheol, also denied that they were engaged in espionage.
In May 2015 the North Korean authorities presented Pastor Choi and Kim Kuk-gi at a press conference in Pyongyang attended by journalists and foreign diplomats at which the two men “confessed” that they had been paid large sums of money over several years to steal state secrets for South Korea.
On 23 June 2015 the Supreme Court sentenced Pastor Choi to life imprisonment with labour for conspiracy to subvert the state, espionage, destruction and sabotage, and illegal border crossing. Kim Kuk-gi was also sentenced to hard labour for life.
In a broadcast that day, North Korea’s state news broadcaster Korean Central Television stated: “Kim Guk-gi and Choi Chun-gil, spies and agents for the puppet regime who were apprehended while plotting and spying against the Republic under the control of the Americans and their puppet regime in South Korea, were tried in the Supreme Court and sentenced to life in prison.”
Analysts have suggested that the verdict was a response to the establishment in Seoul of a UN office for North Korean human rights. Professor Yang Moo-jin of the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul said: “Given the timing, it’s safe to assume that North Korea was responding to the establishment of the UN North Korean human rights office.”
Son appeals for international support
Pastor Choi’s son Choi Jin-young has travelled widely in Europe to draw attention to the plight of six South Koreans held in North Korea (including his father and the two other missionaries) and to appeal for international support.
He visited Brussels, Geneva and Berlin ahead of the UN Human Rights Council’s Universal Periodic Review on 7 November 2024 and in Brussels he met Olof Skoog, the European Union’s Special Representative for human rights, to seek assistance in delivering letters from families of the three missionaries and confirming their survival. Special Representative Skoog pledged to make every possible effort to address the matter. In Geneva, Choi Jin-young met senior officials from the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and the UN’s Working Groups on Arbitrary Detention and Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances to request international support.
South Korean government promises compensation
On 2 November 2023 South Korea’s Unification Ministry published a press release titled “Families of detainees in North Korea to be recognised as victims of abduction and receive consolation money” in which it said that the government of the Republic of Korea would compensate family members of six citizens detained in DPRK (North Korea). The ministry stated, “We hope that this will provide comfort and assistance to the families of detainees in North Korea”, while conceding that the government’s efforts “toward the families of the victims to relieve their pain and provide protection may not have been sufficient”.
The press release stated: “The North has sentenced our people to severe punishments and refused to provide even minimal information on confirming the life or death of those who had helped the under-privileged in North Korea… The Ministry of Unification took another substantial step by recognising the families of detainees in North Korea as victims of abduction, and conducted consultations and legal reviews with the relevant ministries to provide consolation money. On November 2, the Deliberative Committee on Compensation and Assistance to Victims of Abduction by North Korea held a meeting during which it decided to provide consolation money to victims, in accordance with Article 6 of the Act on Compensation and Assistance to Victims of Abduction by North Korea after Conclusion of the Military Armistice Agreement.”
Eric Foley, CEO of Voice of the Martyrs Korea, told NK News that while the compensation will do little to quell the concerns of the families, as they are only focused on the return of their loved ones, the compensation does reflect a renewed commitment to securing the detainees’ return and “can be received as a welcome sign”.
The amount of compensation, which ranges from 15 million to 20 million Korean won (€10,500 to €14,000) per family, is calculated by multiplying the monthly minimum wage by the period of abduction, with a ceiling of 36 times the monthly minimum wage at the time of the payment decision.
Family
Information about Pastor Choi’s family is not publicly available, with the exception of his son Choi Jin-young, who has travelled widely to appeal for international support.
TIMELINE
4 December 2014 Choi Chun-gil was arrested in North Korea and imprisoned on charges including spying for South Korea.
26 March 2015 The KCNA announced the arrests of Choi Chun-gil and Kim Kuk-gi, describing them as “heinous terrorists”.
May 2015 At a press conference held by the North Korean authorities in Pyongyang, Choi Chun-gil and Kim Kuk-gi “confessed” that they had been paid to steal state secrets for South Korea.
23 June 2015 The Supreme Court sentenced Choi Chun-gil to life imprisonment with labour for conspiracy to subvert the state, espionage, destruction and sabotage, and illegal border crossing. Kim Kuk-gi was also sentenced to hard labour for life.
2 February 2023 The families of South Korean detainees in North Korea met the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in North Korea, Elizabeth Salmon, and urged the UN to step up efforts for their repatriation. The Rapporteur reportedly vowed to put her utmost efforts into bringing back the abductees.
2 November 2023 South Korea’s Unification Ministry issued a press release stating that families of detainees in North Korea including Choi Chun-gil, Kim Kuk-gi and Kim Jong Uk would receive compensation payments in recognition of their status as victims of abduction.
3 December 2024 To mark ten years since Choi Chun-gil’s arrest, South Korea’s Ministry of Unification issued a “Statement on the 10th Year of the Arbitrary Detention of Choi Chun-gil in North Korea”.
Read more about the persecution of Christians in North Korea.
(Church in Chains Prisoner Profiles, Christian Solidarity Worldwide North Korea Prayer Guide 4 December 2024, Korea Times, NK News, Press release from the Ministry of Unification, Republic of Korea, 3 December 2024: “Statement on the 10th Year of the Arbitrary Detention of Choi Chun-gil in North Korea”, UCA News, USCIRF)
Photo: Korean Ministry of Unification