According to the lawyers, one of the seven women, Choe Rye-yong, said she had seen and overheard a conversation between Heo and a South Korean intelligence service official who had come to take the waitresses to the Shanghai Pudong International Airport. The lawyers said Choe told them she had managed to inform some of her colleagues and escape with them, although 12 others had already left by bus.

The lawyers said the parents of the 12 women told them they were “in a seriously disturbed state,” as they had not “seen or heard from their daughters after they were taken away to South Korea.” The parents told the lawyers they had informed the United Nations Human Rights Council of the issue through the National Reconciliation Council of North Korea.

The lawyers said they also spoke with officials at the North Korean Emergency Measures Committee of Abducted Persons, who told them their government had sent “several diplomatic protests and communications” to the South Korean government, which went unanswered.

Meanwhile, South Korean authorities are withholding an official statement until the National Human Rights Commission finalizes its investigation.

The human rights body’s communications officer told The Korea Herald that, in the meantime, the content and results of its probe will be kept confidential for security reasons and that the proceedings are usually not open to public. He also said certain cases are filed as non-disclosures for concerns of further victimization, among others, and that decisions for disclosure must be put to a vote at the board. 

The Unification Ministry’s deputy spokesperson Kim Eun-han told The Korea Herald that the ministry will issue a response that respects the human rights commission’s findings. He added that at the time of the defection, the authorities in charge had confirmed the women’s intentions to settle in South Korea.

The International Association of Democratic Lawyers launched the fact-finding committee in May following media reports that South Korea’s National Intelligence Service may have orchestrated the defection of the waitresses. Sasamoto and Bhagwat serve as secretary-general and vice president, respectively, of the association’s Asia-Pacific subgroup, the Confederation of Lawyers of Asia and the Pacific.

During a press conference held Aug. 29 in Seoul, Sasamoto and Bhagwat criticized the National Human Rights Commission of Korea for having “suspended publishing the results of its investigation, which has already been finalized,” saying the “delay itself indicates there may be something to be concealed.”

The two lawyers were in South Korea from Aug. 25-30 on a fact-finding mission but were unable to meet with the relevant authorities. They were also unable to meet with the 12 women as the National Police Agency, which has the 12 women in protective custody, turned down their requests citing security reasons, the lawyers said.

Jang Kyung-wook, a representative of Lawyers for a Democratic Society -- more widely known by the Korean acronym Minbyun -- said the committee’s contacts and meetings with relevant people and authorities in Pyongyang were facilitated by the Korean Democratic Lawyers Organization, a North Korean member group of IADL.

The committee said the final report on the case will be published by the end of the month, to be submitted to the UN Human Rights Council.

By Kim Arin (arin@heraldcorp.com)