ANKARA

South Korea has launched an investigation into the 2019 repatriation of two North Korean fishermen, local media reported on Monday.

The two men caught in the East Sea in November 2019 confessed to killing 16 of their fellow crew members in a bid to defect to South Korea, according to Yonhap News Agency.

They were, however, handed back to Pyongyang as the government of former South Korean President Moon Jae-in “deemed their intentions to be insincere,” the report said.

President Yoon Suk-yeol, who took over from Moon this May, told reporters that the probe must “be carried out in accordance with the constitution and laws.”

A lawyers’ group moved South Korea’s National Human Rights Commission against the repatriation in 2020, but the plea was dismissed owing to “limits” to the watchdog’s investigative powers.

Another plea was submitted to the authority on Monday by a member of the Seoul city council, who termed the repatriation of the North Koreans a “human rights violation.”

Yoon’s government is also investigating the killing of a South Korean fisheries official near the western sea border with North Korea in 2020, the report added.

*Writing by Islamuddin Sajid​​​​​​​