(Seoul) - South Korean sources today state that the Republic of Korea's (ROK) government, ostensibly via the nation's Red Cross, forced a North Korean defector back to the North via the "truce village" of Panmunjeom.

Identified only by his family name, Ri, the man was captured "by a South Korean Navy patrol boat after his fishing boat drifted into southern territorial waters off the East Sea last week."

Such a repatriative move marks a troubling lack of interest in "human intelligence" by the ROK's government, led by former human rights attorney Roh Moo-hyun and Intelligence services, widely mocked now by the conservative Hanaro (Grand National) Party.

President Roh has been roundly criticized by the majority opposition party for installing several key aides with "pro-Pyongyang" viewpoints to the South's spy services. The appointment of Ko Young Koo to chief of the ROK's National Intelligence Service (NIS) was voted down 15-0 in Parliament, by a mix of liberal and conservative Representatives of the South's Intelligence panel. Newly-elected President Roh chose to veto the recommendation.

One of Mr. Ko's first recommendations was, that the South's Intelligence service should no longer be in the business of catching North Korean spies; such, he recommended, is to be the province of the local police departments. Instead, Ko recommended that the NIS should concentrate and spend its resources and manpower on instances of "economic espionage."...

As the world has just learned, a lone individual, arrested recently in Tikrit, Iraq, was responsible for divulging the whereabouts of Saddam Hussein--finally, after eight months of fruitless efforts by both satellite and the best special forces money can buy.

Given the secrecy of the closed Pyongyang regime, turning away a North Korean defector--even one in a crude fishing boat--is a strategic blunder; sending him back to his homeland, to the man's certain execution is an act which belies President Roh Moo-hyun's background as a "human rights" champion.