Payment calculated by multiplying monthly minimum wage by up to 36 times the period of abduction

Unification Minister Jeong Dong-young [Yonhap]
Unification Minister Jeong Dong-young [Yonhap]

The Ministry of Unification said Thursday it has recognized the family of a North Korean defector — one who acquired South Korean citizenship but has been unable to return from the North against their will — as an abduction victim and will pay them consolation money.

The ministry reached the decision after convening a review committee under Article 6 of the Act on Compensation and Support for Victims Abducted to North Korea after the Armistice Agreement, commonly known as the Postwar Abductees Act.

Under the law, the consolation payment is calculated by multiplying the monthly minimum wage by up to 36 times the period of abduction. In this case, the amount comes to approximately 19 million won ($12,500).

"We decided to recognize this person as an abduction victim and pay consolation money from the standpoint of broadly acknowledging the suffering caused by national division and more actively addressing their pain," the government said. With this review, consolation payments will now have been made to the families of all seven detainees, except one who has no family in South Korea.

The government added that the Lee Jae Myung administration "will continue to listen to the pain caused by division and seek solutions through inter-Korean dialogue and cooperation with the international community so that these individuals can be reunited with their loved ones."

Meanwhile, Unification Minister Jeong Dong-young delivered a special address Thursday at the 11th Ulaanbaatar Northeast Asia Security Dialogue in Mongolia, proposing four-party talks as a path to lasting peace. "To sustain peace on the Korean Peninsula, we must end the armistice regime and establish a Korean Peninsula peace regime," he said.


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