Through Its Persecution and Repatriation of Defectors
An underreported human rights tragedy that could literally be resolved overnight continues to occur in the treatment of North Korean refugees by the People’s Republic of China (PRC). The tragic events first started during the North Korean famine when men, women and children started to cross the border in the 1990s, and the situation remains dire even today as Kim, Jong Un and Xi, Jinping have worked to stop North Koreans from escaping.
When Kim, Jong Il assumed power in 1994 with the death of Kim, Il Sung, he was so concerned about these border crossers his propagandists began spreading the lie that China was in the midst of a civil war and while things may be difficult in North Korea things were even worse in China. Thus North Koreans were faced with a terrible choice: starve to death in North Korea or take your chances in China. It did not take long for those early border crossers to report back to their families that the regime had lied: China was a prosperous country and there was plenty of food! And soon hundreds of thousands began crossing the border with thousands making the dangerous trek to get to South Korea.
How China decided to respond to these starving North Korean men, women, and children was — and is today — inhumane, barbaric and illegal. Instead of abiding by its international treaty obligations as China is a signatory to the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees and its 1967 Protocol, China determined the starving men, women and children of North Korea were “economic migrants”, ignoring the fact that they would be tortured, imprisoned, and faced public execution when they were forced back to North Korea. Rather than allow the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, whose sole purpose is to help countries deal with refugees, access to these refugees, the PRC instead gives free reign to North Korea’s Ministry of State Security agents to hunt down refugees and to murder those who try to help them. There have been many cases of disappearances and deaths of people trying to help North Korean refugees and even Chinese citizens have been jailed and murdered for helping them.
The PRC’s response especially impacts females, because as a result of the one child policy in China, there is a shortage of Chinese women. Thus, 90% of North Korean women have been victimized by traffickers: sold to be “wives” or sold into brothels or to internet pornographers. This was the situation that Laura Ling and Euna Lee were trying to expose back in 2009: they had video of the markets where North Korean women were being sold until they ended up in prison in Pyongyang.
Even more tragic is something unique about North Korean refugees: they are the only refugees in the world eligible for immediate resettlement as they have citizenship in South Korea under Articles 2 and 3 of the Republic of Korea Constitution.
The UN Secretary General’s most recent report on North Korea described the inhumane conditions often lead to death for those forced back to North Korea by the PRC. North Korean defectors report that over eighty percent of North Korean escapees carry poison to kill themselves if they are arrested in China. They would rather die than be repatriated to North Korea. Defectors state, China’s “repatriation policy is a death sentence for North Koreans”.
While Xi, Jinping wants to be seen as a responsible world leader, he is in fact aiding and abetting the crimes against humanity of the Kim regime by forcing men, women, and children back to North Korea whose only crime was to want to live. Xi is guilty of atrocious violations of human rights by maintaining this repatriation policy which is a problem that could literally be resolved overnight if he simply abided by the PRC’s international treaty obligations.
Suzanne Scholte is a Seoul Peace Prize Laureate and the Chair of the North Korea Freedom Coalition.
