Dear Mr. President:
In October of last year, I wrote an open letter to you published by the Chosun Ilbo in which I appealed for urgent help to save the lives of North Korean women, men and children currently detained in Chinese detention centers. I appealed to you to do something that every previous South Korean president including Kim Dae-jung has done since the North Korean refugee crisis began -- save Koreans from certain torture and imprisonment and possible death. I pointed out that it was a "golden opportunity" for you to do this because North Korean leader Kim Jong-un's fear of COVID-19 had led the regime to close its borders and refuse to take back North Koreans that China wants to forcefully repatriate.
This was an opportunity for you to ask Chinese President Xi Jinping to show humanitarian compassion and allow them safe passage to South Korea, thus relieving the burden on China.
But you did nothing. That appeal was followed by a letter sent to you on Nov. 2, 2020 by 20 former U.S. government officials representing every U.S. presidency since Richard Nixon, who wrote, "We urge your administration to seize the moment to reach out to the People's Republic of China, as South Korean administrations have quietly and very successfully done in the past, to ask for humanitarian consideration for the North Korean women, men, and children currently detained in [China] and request they be allowed safe passage to the [South] Korea or a third country."
In the belief that you would do the right thing, that letter was not released publicly. But again you did nothing.
Today I learned that two young Korean women held in Chinese detention centers since September 2020, have been released -- not to South Korean authorities, which they had requested, but to their abusers. The Chinese police gave these victims of human trafficking back into the hands of the Chinese men who had bought them. Because of your inaction, they were returned to their slave masters.
You turned your back on these two women and hundreds of others, but it is not too late. Among those still in detention are Christians and those trying to reunite with their families in South Korea, two crimes that are punishable by death in North Korea. They face execution if Chinese authorities force them back to North Korea.
I understand that you are a Catholic. If you will not consider these requests for help, would you at least consider Proverbs 24:11-12? It calls on you to "deliver them that are drawn unto death, and those that are ready to be slain," and warns that "if thou sayest, behold, we knew it not," God will "render to every man according to his works."
As I wrote before, it was because of action taken on behalf of your own family that you had the great good fortune to choose your own path and thrive in South Korea, and even to become its president. Now you are the person with the most authority in the world to act to protect the lives of these refugees and enable them to have the same opportunities.
There is still time. Please act. You know full well that your country has plenty of room to accommodate these women, men and children.
