On November 7, 2019, a text message sent by Army Infantry Lieutenant Colonel Lim Eui-jin, commander of the JSA Guard to the First Deputy Chief of the National Security Office of the Blue House, Kim Yu-geun, was caught on a media camera.
It was reported that two North Koreans would be deported to the North.
The defense minister said the incident was "not reported". However, the military explained that the 'expulsion of North Koreans' is not a matter to report directly to the Minister of National Defense as it is not a military measure.
In fact, the Moon Jae-in government receives only 'confessions' from North Korean defectors that are suspicious of the existence of criminal facts, and without proper investigation and prosecution of the crime, the defector is not a foreign country under the Constitution, but an anti-state organization. Criticism has been raised that the same human rights violations may be viewed as indirectly committing murder by sending them to North Korea without trial.
In response, the international community and public opinion in South Korea strongly raised suspicion that the Moon Jae-in administration had sacrificed two young North Korean defectors in order to have Kim Jong-un participate in the Busan-Korea-ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) Special Summit. The Blue House was criticized not only by North Korean human rights groups at home and abroad, but also by Amnesty International and the United Nations.