A father in Washington state is pleading with South Korean authorities for the return of his young son. The non-custodial mother is wanted in the United States for allegedly kidnapping a child overseas and returning her son in violation of court orders in both countries.
Brian Song, now seven years old, was just three years old when his mother, Min Jeong Cho, 42, allegedly spirited him away to his native South Korea in June 2019.
Brian's father, Dr. Jay Sun (43), said that although Brian won his legal battles in the United States and abroad, he remains estranged from his son and has not seen him for more than half of his life. Ta.
“South Korea did nothing to protect it.” [Bryan]” the orthodontist told FOX News Digital. “They should send American citizens back to their homes, where the laws should be enforced and protected.”
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Jay and Brian Song were seen in an undated selfie before the child was taken to South Korea by his non-custodial mother. (Jay Son)
Son was initially granted full custody, but the judge overseeing the divorce allowed each parent to take Brian to South Korea for up to three weeks a year.
Cho took Brian to South Korea, and on the final day of the planned trip, her lawyer contacted Song and told her the boy would not be returned to the United States, the sources said.
Song was unable to confirm her son's actual whereabouts at the time, but filed a missing person report in Redmond, Washington. South Korean police eventually located Brian at his maternal grandmother's home, but Song said he was told the case would have to be resolved in civil court.
Although Mr. Song was born in South Korea, he spent much of his childhood in Ohio. He served in the Korean Army and returned to the United States to study dentistry at UCLA. He is currently an orthodontist in Washington, D.C., and he and his son are U.S. citizens.
That was not the case and Cho's permanent residence status was revoked because he did not return home for more than a year, Song said.
Cho Min-jung has been wanted in Washington state since April 2020 on a warrant for custodial interference. She is suspected of kidnapping her 3-year-old son Brian to South Korea, and she is refusing a court order to return him to his father in the United States. (National Center for Missing and Exploited Children)
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The Washington state warrant for Cho's arrest has been in effect since April 20, 2020, according to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.
He said Son filed a petition in 2019 under the Hague Convention governing international child abduction, trafficking and adoption.
In a process that lasted several years, the court ruled in Cho's favor, and he subsequently exhausted his appeals. But she refused to hand over her boy, her father said. South Korean courts have repeatedly sided with Song, who said the country's laws have compliance loopholes that prevent law enforcement from seizing children by force.
Currently, Son is the only legal guardian recognized by both countries, but says he is powerless as South Korean authorities refuse to enforce a court request to return the child to his father. They arrested Ms Cho twice and did not return her son, even though they fined her, he said.
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Son launched a social media campaign to demand further action from the South Korean government for the return of her son, holding a one-man protest in front of the South Korean consulate in Seattle.
Dr. Jae Sung borrowed a sign and staged a one-man protest near the South Korean Consulate General in Seattle, where he was abducted by his estranged wife in 2019 and remains in the Asian country despite multiple court orders for his return. He demanded the return of his son.to the usa (Jay Son)
Mr. Song's plight has drawn support from local Congressman Kim Schrier, as well as the State Department and FBI.
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In recent years, the State Department has rebuked South Korea For a “pattern of non-compliance” under the Convention resulting from the performance of national law enforcement agencies on court-ordered returns.
“in particular, [Republic of Korea] “Law enforcement authorities have routinely failed to enforce return orders in abduction cases,” the State Department’s 2023 International Child Abduction Action Report states. Over 12 months. ”
Brian Song's photo appears on a missing person flyer from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. His father filed a missing person report, but South Korean police searched his maternal grandmother's home overseas, where it is believed that his mother, who does not have custody of him, took him in 2019. (National Center for Missing and Exploited Children)
But a State Department spokesperson told Fox News Digital that while South Korea is cooperating with Bryan's case, American diplomats have raised questions with South Korea over the lengthy repatriation process. .
“Regarding Dr. Song's case and other similar cases, we have raised this issue multiple times with South Korean officials in Washington and Seoul, and we are concerned about the country's lengthy judicial process and lack of implementation of the Hague Abduction Convention. “We have expressed this order,'' the spokesperson said.
A spokesperson for the FBI's Seattle office said that in response to the kidnapping of famed aviator Charles Lindbergh's then-2-year-old son, the agency was acting under the 1932 Lindbergh Act (also known as the federal kidnapping law). It said it had been given jurisdiction over certain child abduction cases. .
“Child abduction cases can be time-consuming and require coordination with other law enforcement agencies in the United States and abroad, as well as with field offices that facilitate the FBI's missions abroad,” she said. Ta.
According to a State Department action report, the average time it takes to resolve child abduction cases in South Korea is just under three years.
If Brian doesn't return by April, he will be missing for five years. Even South Korean parliamentarians held public hearings on the issue, determined that South Korea's system was flawed, and began drafting reforms, Song said. South Korean authorities did not respond to requests for comment.
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The incident is reminiscent of a 2000 operation to return Cuban shipwreck survivor Elian Gonzalez to his father, but Son said South Korean police had to send a SWAT team to rescue his son. refuted the idea that there is.
FILE – Elian Gonzalez was shot by Donato Dalrymple, one of the two men who rescued the boy from the water, as authorities searched for the boy at Lazaro Gonzalez's home in Miami, Florida. Locked in the closet (right). the year of 2000. Gonzalez survived a shipwreck in 1999 that killed his mother and washed ashore in Florida. Although he had family in Miami, his father wanted him to return to Cuba, and after his American relatives exhausted all legal efforts to keep him here, U.S. authorities Took him out in a dramatic way. (AP)
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“If it's really, really necessary and that's the only way to get the child back, I'm not opposed to it,” he told FOX News Digital. “But at the same time, using 'violence' on a child doesn't necessarily mean doing it in a very traumatic way. Sometimes violence is necessary. If a child doesn't want to go to school, , sometimes violence is necessary.'' You have to use force to force someone into a car. ”
