March 11 (Asia Today) — South Korea’s Ministry of Unification has officially classified a missing defector journalist as a citizen detained in North Korea, raising the number of South Koreans recognized by the government as held in the North from six to seven.

The decision concerns Ham Jin-woo, a defector journalist who disappeared in 2017 while reporting near the North Korea-China border.

Ham worked under the pen name Choi Song-min for North Korea-focused media outlets Daily NK and Kookmin Tongil Broadcasting. He traveled to China in May 2017 for reporting and was last seen after leaving a taxi near the border area. Contact with him was lost shortly afterward.

South Korean authorities believe North Korea’s state security agency may have been involved in his disappearance.

Ham’s wife said she was told shortly after his disappearance that he had been detained in an underground cell run by the North’s security authorities in Pyongyang. Since then, the family has been unable to confirm whether he is alive.

“After hearing that my husband was being held in an underground detention facility in Pyongyang, we have not received any further information about his fate,” she said in a phone interview Wednesday.

She said the family had been unable to take meaningful steps to confirm his status or secure his return.

Ham’s wife also said she was shocked when South Korean President Lee Jae-myung previously said at a press conference with foreign journalists that he was unaware of any South Koreans detained in North Korea.

However, she expressed appreciation that the Ministry of Unification has now formally classified her husband as a detainee, though she said the government has not directly informed the family about the decision.

The ministry said it updated the number of South Koreans detained in North Korea from six to seven on its official website in December.

Officials said the decision followed consultations with relevant government agencies and reflected a broader effort to recognize victims of division on the Korean Peninsula.

The ministry also noted that a parliamentary committee previously petitioned for Ham’s release and that the U.S. State Department’s human rights reports have categorized him as a detainee in North Korea.

In 2018, then-lawmaker Ha Tae-kyung also called on the government to recognize Ham as a detainee and demand his return from North Korea.

The Ministry of Unification said families of detainees living in South Korea may apply for compensation payments. If approved by a government review committee, the payments would be provided under a law supporting victims abducted by North Korea after the 1953 Korean War armistice.

— Reported by Asia Today; translated by UPI

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