State body accused of illegally detaining N. Korean defector

SEOUL, Dec. 30 (Yonhap) -- A state-run resettlement center for North Korean defectors has drawn fire for sending a disobedient defector from the North to a mental hospital against his will and in violation of current law, the state human rights watchdog said Thursday.

The unidentified man, who escaped from the North in 2004, was sent to a mental
hospital in Anseong, south of Seoul, just one day after arriving at the
resettlement center, called Hanawon, in February 2009. The committed man
reportedly failed to comply with center officials' instructions, the National
Human Rights Commission (NHRC) said.
The NHRC said Hanawon failed to get due consent from the defector's uncle, who
settled before him in South Korea, in the course of committing him, even though
his records included his uncle's name and phone number.



By law, a mental patient can be committed against his or her will with the
consent of a guardian. When there is no guardian, the chief of the local
government in the patient's residing area can grant consent instead.
The North Korean, whose identity was withheld by the commission, defected to
South Korea via China and Thailand in January 2009. He was sent to Hanawon, south
of Seoul, a month later for 12 weeks of resettlement education, but yelled and
hurled abusive words at a staffer in charge there, refusing to be admitted.
The staffer then asked for a psychological consultation on the defector. The
counselor reported him to a public health doctor at the center, attaching an
opinion that the defector needed psychiatric treatment for mania, thought
disorder and dysesthesia.
After an one-hour consultation with the doctor, the defector was diagnosed with
bipolar disorder and confined to a mental hospital in Gyeonggi Province only one
day after arriving at Hanawon. He was discharged 70 days later with help from his
uncle.
The uncle then filed a complaint with the NHRC, claiming that Hanawon illegally
hospitalized his nephew.
The NHRC said it upheld the complaint and recommended that the unification
minister take disciplinary measures against the Hanawon staffer and issue
warnings to the rehabilitation center's chief and lead medical doctor and pay
compensation to the defector on Nov. 29.
In the hospitalization process, the chief of Hanawon himself gave consent to
commit the man after the municipal government of Anseong, where the facility is
located, refused to serve as the defector's guardian, saying he is just a
temporary resident of the city.
Hanawon later denied knowledge of the defector's uncle's residence in South
Korea, although the uncle's name and phone number were in the defector's
interrogation file.
The facility "infringed upon the defector's human rights and abused its power by
forcibly sending him to a mental hospital one day after arriving at Hanawon
without taking legal procedures just because he protested with yelling and
abusive words," the commission said.
"Even if the defector needed to be hospitalized against his will, it should have
delayed hospitalization and make a careful decision if there was a debate over
who is the defector's guardian," it said.
sshim@yna.co.kr
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