Kim Jong-Il
Chairman
National Defence Commission
Pyongyang
Democratic People’s Republic of Korea

Dear Chairman,

Kang Gun, a South Korean national, was abducted by North Korean agents operating in China. He was last seen on 4 March 2005 in the province of Jilin, which borders North Korea.

He was reportedly taken across the border into North Korea and held for six months in the State Security Agency facility in Chongjin in North Hamgyong province. He was interrogated and possibly tortured and then taken to a detention facility in the capital, Pyongyang. He is at risk of further torture or execution.

Kang Gun, who grew up in North Korea, was an officer in the National Security Agency. He fled to China in 2000 and later to South Korea, of which he became a national. By 2004 he was raising awareness of human rights abuses in North Korea and helping North Koreans who were trying to escape to South Korea. In February 2004 he passed on secretly filmed footage of a political prison camp in South Hamgyong province to a Japanese television company.

Hundreds of North Koreans cross the border into China every year. Thousands have been detained in China since the 1990s and forcibly returned to North Korea. On their return, many face prolonged detention and torture. Some are executed.

I ask for Kang Gun to be released and allowed to leave North Korea, or to be charged with a recognizably criminal offence and given a prompt and fair trial.

Furthermore I urge the North Korean authorities to acknowledge and disclose where Kang Gun is being detained.

Sincerely,

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