In the News – China Joins World Powers in Strong Warning to N.Korea

In the News – China Joins World Powers in Strong Warning to N.Korea

China has joined other world powers in warning North Korea that they will not tolerate any more provocations after the isolated nation’s failed rocket launch last week.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said late Monday in Brasilia that the UN Security Council members, including China, are agreed there will be “further consequences” in the event of another provocative act by North Korea. Recent satellite photographs show Pyongyang may be preparing for an underground nuclear test.

China’s state-controlled media are also showing signs of frustration with Pyongyang, noting that China took “a clear attitude in condemning” its longtime ally when it backed a UN Security Council statement criticizing the rocket launch.

In the News – China eases repatriating policy!

In the News – China eases repatriating policy

South Korean government ministries say they have received no confirmation China has stopped, at least temporarily, repatriating North Koreans.

A Japanese newspaper, Yomiuri, says an unnamed Chinese official in Liaoning province told its reporter such forced returns of North Koreans to their home country had stopped.

The newspaper says the suspension reflects China’s displeasure with North Korea for the controversial rocket launch.

Ahead of the launch, China permitted five North Korean defectors to leave for South Korea. The North Koreans had long been holed up in South Korea’s Embassy in Beijing to avoid arrest.

South Korea and international rights groups have called on China to alter its policy, saying those sent back to North Korea face retribution, possibly including death sentences.

The two Koreas have no diplomatic relations. They technically remain at war as they never signed a peace treaty following a devastating three-year conflict in the early 1950s.

Original article can be found here.

In the News – Boney M urges Beijing to be lenient on N. Korean defectors

In the News – Boney M urges Beijing to be lenient on N. Korean defectors

SEOUL, April 17 (Yonhap) — A lead vocalist of the well-known disco group Boney M said on Tuesday that North Korean defectors detained in China should be given a chance at freedom, calling for Beijing to show leniency.

“There should be some kind of leniency, giving these people (defectors) a chance to live a life they have chosen,” Liz Mitchell said at a press conference in Seoul before playing a concert on Saturday.

Boney M’s three other members also showed support for North Korean defectors, according to Howard Kim, the manager of the concert organizer.

In the News – Disco group Boney M to show support for N. Korean defectors

In the News – Disco group Boney M to show support for N. Korean defectors

SEOUL, April 16 (Yonhap) — The well-known disco group Boney M plans to show support for North Korean defectors who face repatriation in China during their visit to Seoul this week for a concert, the event organizer said Monday.

The four-member vocal group, which achieved massive popularity during the disco era of the late 1970s, is scheduled to play a concert in Seoul Saturday and will donate part of ticket sales to a local defectors group, according to Howard Kim, manager of concert promoter Btechnic.

“Boney M thought the issue of forceful repatriation of North Korean defectors is in line with the philosophy of their songs,” Kim said, adding the group will hold a press conference in Seoul Tuesday to urge Beijing not to repatriate defectors detained in China.

Some 100 North Korean defectors are reportedly in detention in China and face deportation back to their communist homeland, where it is feared they will receive harsh punishment and even execution, according to a South Korean lawmaker.

At the height of their popularity, the group released “By the Rivers of the Babylon” in 1978, which became the second highest selling single in British chart history. The song, which was also Boney M’s only U.S. Top 40 hit, is about freedom for the oppressed.

“Boney M is scheduled to visit the Chinese Embassy (in Seoul) Wednesday to show support for defectors who are on a hunger strike and participate in a candelight rally (against forceful repatriation),” Kim said.

Defectors and activists have been staging hunger strikes to protest against Beijing’s policy of repatriation in front of China’s mission in Seoul. Most recently, high-profile South Korean lawmakers have joined the rallies.

Original article can be found here.

In the News – China Lets N.Korean Teenager Go to Seoul

In the News – China Lets N.Korean Teenager Go to Seoul

One of the North Korean defectors who arrived in South Korea from China early this month was a teenager who had been hiding at the South Korean Consulate in Shenyang. According to a diplomatic source in Seoul on Thursday, China sent him to South Korea along with the three family members of a South Korean prisoner of war who had been living in the Consulate in Beijing.

“It seems China let go the teenager who was hiding in the consulate because it’s tired of the international focus on the plight of young North Korean defectors,” the source added.

China drew international condemnation when it emerged that the 14- and 18-year-old grandchildren of the South Korean POW had been living in the Beijing consulate for as long as 34 months.

China is apparently planning to let another seven North Koreans hiding in South Korean diplomatic missions in Beijing and Shenyang travel to Seoul in the near future.

Original article can be found here.

In the News – N. Korean defector-spy gets 4-yr jail term for assassination attempt

In the News – N. Korean defector-spy gets 4-yr jail term for assassination attempt

SEOUL, April 5 (Yonhap) — A North Korean defector-turned-spy was sentenced to four years in prison for attempting to kill a fellow defector in South Korea at the order of the communist regime, court officials said Thursday.

The secret agent, surnamed Ahn, was charged with plotting to kill Park Sang-hak, a defector leading anti-Pyongyang propaganda activities in the South, with a poisoned needle in September.

He was also ordered to pay 11.75 million won (US$10,399) in fines, the equivalent of his payment from the North.

“Severe punishment is needed for crimes that can threaten the existence and safety of the Republic of Korea (South Korea),” the Seoul Central District Court said in a ruling. “However, (the court) took into consideration the circumstances that led Ahn to commit the crime, such as the fact that he was unexpectedly given the poisoned needle while gathering North Korea intelligence for the National Intelligence Service (NIS),” the South’s spy agency.

Ahn defected to the South in 1995 and served as a director of a company handling inter-Korean economic projects. In 2010, he came into contact with a North Korean spy during business trips to Mongolia, and was later ordered to carry out the assassination, court officials said.

Ahn said he followed the instructions out of resentment for the NIS, as he informed the agency of the assassination plot and offered to gather top intelligence on the communist regime, but was rebuffed and even warned of possible legal consequences, according to the officials.

North Korea has said it opposes all forms of terrorism, though it has a track record of terrorist attacks against South Korea. The Koreas are technically at war with each other after the 1950-53 Korean War ended in a truce.

Original article can be found here.

In the News – Rocket plan shows new N.K. regime’s ‘structural intransigence’: Lee advisor

In the News – Rocket plan shows new N.K. regime’s ‘structural intransigence’: Lee advisor

SEOUL, April 4 (Yonhap) — North Korea’s determination to go ahead with a planned long-range rocket launch is indicative of the new regime’s “structural intransigence” under young leader Kim Jong-un and a “self-defeating” choice, a South Korean unification policy advisor said Wednesday.

Hyun In-taek, a unification policy advisor to President Lee Myung-bak who served as Seoul’s point man on North Korea for almost three years until last October, forecast a repeat of the North’s provocations in 2009, when it last launched a long-range rocket in April then conducted its second nuclear test a month later.

Despite international condemnation, North Korea has vowed to go ahead with the launch of a long-range rocket between April 12 and 16, ostensibly to put a satellite into space orbit. South Korea, the United States and other countries have condemned the proposed launch as a disguised test of the North’s improved ballistic missile technology.

In the News – Human Rights Groups Call on UN Over N.Korea Gulag

In the News – Human Rights Groups Call on UN Over N.Korea Gulag

Over 10,000 people die in North Korean prison camps every year, 20 to 25 percent of them from forced labor, the International Coalition to Stop Crimes Against Humanity in North Korea said Tuesday.

The group consists of some 40 leading human rights organizations and activists including the world’s big three — Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and the International League for Human Rights — and was established in September last year.

In a press conference Tuesday it called on the UN to carry out a special investigation of North Korean gulags and said it submitted a petition to the UN Human Rights Council.

Based on testimonies of North Korean defectors, it says there are six political prisons in the Stalinist country housing 150,000 to 200,000 people who are subject to inhumane treatment such as forced labor, torture and public execution. It said the work of just one UN special rapporteur on North Korea is not enough to save the vast number of political prisoners there and urged the UN to establish a commission to investigate crimes against humanity in the isolated country.

Original article can be found here.

In the News – 10 N.Korean Defectors’ Odyssey Ends

In the News – 10 N.Korean Defectors’ Odyssey Ends

Ten North Korean defectors who had been hiding in South Korean diplomatic missions in China arrived discreetly in South Korea on Sunday. They consisted of five who had been hiding in the Consulate in Beijing for three years, three of them family members of a South Korean prisoner of war, as well as defectors who were living at the Consulate in Shenyang.

It was the first time in the five-year tenure of President Lee Myung-bak that the Chinese government has allowed North Korean defectors hiding in South Korean diplomatic missions to come to South Korea. Remarks by Chinese President Hu Jintao in a meeting with Lee on the sidelines of the Nuclear Security Summit in Seoul on March 26 appear to have played a role in their release.

Hu told Lee that China “is taking a lot of interest and giving consideration to the issue of North Korean defectors and respects [South Korea’s] position. It will strive to ensure that the issue is resolved smoothly.”

Some say China’s decision is a kind of warning to Pyongyang. China urged North Korea through diplomatic channels to halt the launch of what Pyongyang says is a space rocket but was rebuffed, and some experts believe that prompted Beijing to let the defectors go.

But China apparently stressed that their release was an exception. China’s official stance regarding North Korean defectors remains the same, placing more importance on its pact with Pyongyang to repatriate them than the UN treaty on the treatment of refugees.

Other experts say the release of the defectors demonstrates Beijing’s displeasure with Pyongyang over the missile launch. Beijing repeatedly allowed North Koreans who sought shelter in diplomatic missions in China to come to South Korea, but that stopped in the last three or four years, apparently due to pressure from Pyongyang.

Original article can be found here. 

In the News – North Korean Defector Sees Signs of Chinese Policy Shift

In the News – North Korean Defector Sees Signs of Chinese Policy Shift 

Photo: Reuters Protesters hold a poster during a rally by Now Action & Unity for North Korea Human Rights activists and North Korean defectors near the Chinese embassy in Seoul, FILE March 3, 2012.

A research organization in Seoul says it is hopeful of better treatment for North Korean defectors in China following signs that the Chinese policy of forcing them to return home has eased.

Kang Chul Hwan, a founding director of the North Korea Strategy Center in Seoul, spoke Wednesday about media reports that a family of five has been permitted to travel to South Korea after almost three years in a South Korean consulate in Beijing.

South Korean government officials contacted by VOA confirmed the accuracy of the reports. Kung, who is himself a defector, said his group is still trying to obtain details about the Chinese action.

In the News – Stop crackdown on N. Korean refugees

In the News – Stop crackdown on N. Korean refugees

By Sokeel Park

Western media attention on North Korea has recently been dominated by the U.S.-DPRK “Leap Day Deal” of food aid for nuclear concessions, and by Pyongyang’s subsequent announcement of a “satellite” launch to mark the centenary of Kim Il-sung’s birth, which would be a deal-breaker for the U.S. However, as usual, beneath all the high politics and focus on security concerns, there is quite a different story involving the North Korean people.

Away from the back and forth in U.S.-DPRK negotiations on security concerns, South Korea has been battling with the Chinese government over its forced repatriations of North Korean refugees. China is hemorrhaging soft-power on this issue, alienating the South Korean people and government and damaging its reputation before the international community. In the long run this is a strategic mistake. 

United States Refugee Program

Curious about the community of North Korean refugees in the United States, I tried to dig up any information that I could in regards to adjustments of defectors here. I did not expect to find too much information available on the Internet easily since many refugees remain vulnerable after defection considering that family members often still live in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. To my surprise, I did come across a very interesting article about a particular family of refugees in America on the Hankyoreh newspaper website.

In the News – Emergency Hearing on North Korean Refugees in China

In the News – Emergency Hearing on North Korean Refugees in China

WASHINGTON—The Congressional Executive Commission on China (CECC) held an emergency hearing to draw attention to the over 30 North Korean refugees who had fled to China and are facing the imminent danger of repatriation. If returned, they face certain persecution, torture, and even execution.

“The international community—especially the United Nations, the Obama Administration, and the U.S. Congress—must insist that China at long last honor its treaty obligations, end its egregious practice of [forced return to North Korea], or be exposed as hypocrites,” said Rep. Chris Smith, Chairman of the CECC, March 5 in his opening remarks.

In the News – Clinton urges China to stop repatriation of N. Korean defectors

In the News – Clinton urges China to stop repatriation of N. Korean defectors

By Lee Chi-dong
WASHINGTON, March 9 (Yonhap) — U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton made clear Friday that her government is opposed to the forceful repatriation of North Korean refugees, a breach of international agreements.

“We urge every country to act according to international obligations,” such as the 1951 U.N. refugee convention and the 1967 protocol, Clinton said in a joint press conference with South Korean Foreign Minister Kim Sung-hwan after their talks at the State Department building in Washington.

She was responding to a question on China’s policy of sending back North Korean defectors to their authoritarian and impoverished nation. Recently, China has repatriated around 30 North Koreans, according to human rights activists, although there is no government-level confirmation.

In the News – U.N. chief voices concern over N. Korean defectors in China

In the News – U.N. chief voices concern over N. Korean defectors in China

NEW YORK, March 8 (Yonhap) — United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon expressed “deep concern” Thursday over the fate of North Korean defectors in China, which has emerged as a key diplomatic issue between Seoul and Beijing, according to his office.

In a meeting with visiting South Korean Foreign Minister Kim Sung-hwan, Ban “shared the deep concern with the Foreign Minister about the dislocated people from the DPRK, and encouraged the concerned parties to do their utmost to find a mutually agreeable solution,” the U.N. leader’s office said in a press release.

South Koreans are increasingly demanding China stop its forceful repatriation of North Korean defectors following media reports that around 30 North Koreans are in custody there and face deportation back to their hunger-stricken homeland.

Ban, formerly a South Korean foreign minister, also reiterated his worries about the severe food and nutrition problems in the North and welcomed some progress in talks between the U.S. and North Korea, Ban’s office said.

The South’s foreign minister, meanwhile, told reporters that the Seoul government and the U.N. agreed to continue consultations over the humanitarian issue in the North.

Kim said Seoul was trying to confirm press reports of the pending repatriation of North Koreans caught by Chinese authorities.

He is scheduled to hold bilateral talks with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in Washington on Friday.

Original article can be found here. 

In the News – U.S. activists urge China to stop repatriation of N. Korean defectors

In the News – U.S. activists urge China to stop repatriation of N. Korean defectors

By Lee Chi-dong
WASHINGTON, March 1 (Yonhap) — A group of U.S.-based human rights activists staged an eye-catching protest rally Thursday right in front of the Chinese Embassy in Washington, demanding Beijing stop the forceful repatriation of North Korean defectors.

In a street performance, a participant, wearing the uniform of Chinese security officials, dragged two women, with their faces masked and hands tied with ropes.

In the News – China Rejects Pleas Not to Repatriate North Koreans

In the News – China Rejects Pleas Not to Repatriate North Koreans

China is rejecting South Korean pleas not to repatriate some 30 North Korean refugees who were recently arrested in Chinese territory.

Since last week, several dozen protesters outside of the Chinese Embassy in Seoul have called on Beijing not to repatriate around 30 North Korean detainees Chinese authorities recently arrested. 

In the News – Four more N. Korean defectors detained in China: lawmaker

In the News – Four more N. Korean defectors detained in China: lawmaker

SEOUL/BEIJING, Feb. 20 (Yonhap) — A South Korean lawmaker claimed Monday four more North Korean defectors had been detained by Chinese authorities in the central city of Zhengzhou while fleeing their impoverished homeland, raising the number of defectors believed to be in custody to 34.

Rep. Park Sun-young of the minor opposition Liberty Forward Party had earlier said five groups totaling 30 North Korean asylum seekers have been detained in China since earlier this month in a tightened crackdown on defectors near the border between the two nations.

In the News – S. Korea to call on China to comply with refugee law for N. Korean defectors

In the News – S. Korea to call on China to comply with refugee law for N. Korean defectors

SEOUL, Feb. 19 (Yonhap) — In what appears to be a policy shift to step up efforts to avoid repatriation of North Korean defectors detained in China to their communist homeland, South Korea said Sunday it will urge Beijing to comply with an international refugee law.

Exploring the Connection between China and North Korea: Part II

In Seoul Train, often the Chinese government did not seem to consider the North Korean defectors as eligible for asylum. Therefore, I will first clarify the definition of refugee and asylum-seeker as stated by the United Nations Refugee Agency. According to the 1951 Refugee Convention that established the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, “a refugee is someone who owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion, is outside the country of his [or her] nationality, and is unable to, or owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself [or herself] of the protection of that country,” and an asylum seeker is “someone who says he or she is a refugee, but whose claim has not yet been definitively evaluated.”[1]