Foreign Embassies: Safe Havens for North Korean Defectors? (2)

Why this image provokes a furor?

China denies repatriation of North Korean refugees

Activists: More North Koreans expected to flee into China

North Korean asylum seekers leave China

21 May 2002

Why this image provokes a furor

By Barbara Demick

Los Angeles Times (14.05.2002)/ HRWF International Secretariat (21.05.2002) C Website: www.hrwf.net - Email: info@hrwf.net - Over and over, news programs play footage of a pigtailed 2-year-old watching in terror as her mother and grandmother, North Korean defectors seeking asylum at a diplomatic mission in China, are arrested by police.

If a picture is worth a thousand words, it is not surprising that this image has set off a diplomatic imbroglio, and a debate about the growing number of desperate North Korean defectors storming diplomatic compounds in China.

The incident last Wednesday took place at the Japanese Consulate in the northeast Chinese city of Shenyang. Japan's Foreign Ministry has demanded that China apologize for arresting people in a diplomatic compound - a violation of international law - and turn over the defectors: the girl, her mother, grandmother, father and uncle. South Korea offered to resettle them if they are willing to go there rather than the United States, their first choice.

But China yesterday refused to hand them over, according to a Japanese diplomat, and accused Tokyo of stirring hostility by pressing for their release.

More than 100,000 North Koreans are estimated to have fled north into China to escape famine and repression in their reclusive Communist homeland. China, deferring to its longtime ally, does not treat them as refugees, instead returning them to North Korea. Some analysts fear that a mass exodus might develop, destabilizing the region.

In recent weeks, refugee advocates, missionaries and other activists have helped dozens of North Koreans seek diplomatic refuge in China. In the last week, 10 have made bids for asylum: In addition to the five at the Japanese Consulate, three got inside the U.S. Consulate in Shenyang on Thursday. The two others got into the Canadian Embassy in Beijing on Saturday.

The three at the U.S. Consulate left yesterday for Singapore, then Seoul. The couple in the Canadian Embassy were expected to follow soon.

China denies repatriation of North Korean refugees

Chosun.com (17.05.2002)/ HRWF International Secretariat (21.05.2002) C Website: www.hrwf.net - Email: info@hrwf.net - Japans Kyoto News Agency reported, Friday, that Chinese Vice-minister of Foreign Affairs Qian Quichen said Beijing has not been sending North Korean defectors back compulsorily. The China policy on North Korean refugees was to allow them to lead a free life in China, as long as they didn't commit a crime.

The comments by the Chinese cabinet member have become the focus of attention in Japan as they contradict a series of international news stories on forcible repatriation from Yanbien, Beijing and provinces. Media agencies called for Quian to clarify if there has been a change in Chinas policy.

According to the agency, Quian told a conference of retired reporters, celebrating the 30th anniversary of the normalization of diplomatic ties between Japan and China, Thursday, North Koreans came to China for many reasons, but Beijing has not forced them to return to Pyongyang, which also does not want them, as it will have to find them jobs and food, Quian noted some came to China, went back to North Korea and then returned to China, adding as long as they have no military secrets Pyongyang does not punish them.

With regard to the incident of five North Korean defectors storming into Japans consulate in Shenyang, Quian said there was an agitative purpose behind this, adding the consulate had nothing to do with the diplomatic conflict between Tokyo and Beijing. He also stated with that the circumstances surrounding the five were unclear, heightening the chance of a delay in their departure to a third country.

Activists: More North Koreans expected to flee into China

By Amy Bickers

VOA News (16.05.2002)/ HRWF International Secretariat (21.05.2002) C Website: www.hrwf.net - Email: info@hrwf.net - The plight of North Korean refugees in China has come under the spotlight in recent weeks, as 10 asylum seekers sought refuge in foreign diplomatic compounds in China. Activists promise there will be more such incidents, placing Beijing at the center of a complex human rights dilemma.

Television news broadcasts around the world have repeatedly played video of Chinese police seizing two female North Korean defectors. The women were seeking asylum at a Japanese consulate in Shenyang along with three other family members.

The footage appears to confirm that the women made it past the compound's gate before police dragged them out - a violation of international law. The videotape set off a diplomatic firestorm and ignited a debate about the number of desperate North Koreans who are now in China, hoping to defect to a third country.

Beijing regards the North Koreans as illegal immigrants, and repatriates those it catches. It has refused to give them refugee status, even though the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees said many of them would probably qualify for it.

Joseph Cheng is a politics professor at Hong Kong University. He said Beijing is reluctant to offend the North Korea. He also said China does not want to provide a haven for the refugees, fearing a massive flow of asylum seekers into the country.

"Chinese authorities are in a rather difficult situation; on one hand they want to maintain good relations with the Kim Jong Il regime in Pyongyang. And, on the other hand, because of China's integration with the global economy, China is very concerned with its image. To some extent, it has suffered because it has to been too eager to avoid embarrassing the Kim regime in Pyongyang," Mr. Cheng said.

Aid groups estimate that up to 300,000 North Koreans have fled to neighboring China to escape political repression and famine in their Stalinist homeland.

Human rights group Amnesty International has said most North Koreans fleeing to China swim or wade across the Tumen river, or walk across in winter when it is frozen. Others cross along the 1,300-kilometer land border.

Once in China, activists say, North Koreans are in a precarious situation. Some find shelter in farms and villages and receive help from China's ethnic-Korean community, but others resort to begging and stealing to survive. Human rights groups say many women turn to prostitution, while others are sold into marriage to Chinese nationals by so-called bride traffickers.

In the past, Beijing has avoided dealing with the North Koreans hiding in its northeastern provinces, though few have been repatriated. Activists worry that nearly 40 successful asylum bids in the past 18 months are pushing Chinese authorities to be more vigilant.

Reports received by Amnesty International indicate that Chinese security forces and North Korean agents are on the lookout for North Koreans. The reports also say local officials have raised fines for those who help asylum seekers, and have increased rewards for those turning them in.

Dr. Norbert Vollertsen is a German human rights activist based in Seoul who helps North Koreans defect. A physician who has practiced in North Korea, Dr. Vollertsen wants other countries to pressure Beijing into giving better treatment to North Korean defectors within its borders.

"Now China is a member of the World Trade Organization and host of the Olympics in 2008. This will create pressure on China. The international community has to create diplomatic pressure on China and we will exploit this attention. Therefore, we will try to make more trouble in China. We aim to get more defectors into Western embassies and the TV images shown in front of the whole world will create some pressure on China," Dr. Vollertsen said.

Dr. Vollertsen said he and other activists are hoping to use the coming soccer World Cup as the backdrop for a dramatic asylum bid. He hints that plans are in the works to send thousands of North Koreans from China to South Korea by boat while the country is co-hosting the tournament, which opens May 31.

"We actually now realize that there is more and more encouragement. More NGOs from foreign countries such as France, Belgium and America are joining and offering help and logistical support and some money. This is what we need for our international operations," Dr. Vollertsen said.

The international community is divided on whether such high-profile tactics will help the would-be asylum seekers' or hinder them. Diplomats from other countries have indicated that pushing China to clarify its position could worsen regional tensions. They also point out that the recent asylum bids show that China, Japan, South Korea, and the United States need a more coordinated effort toward North

North Korean asylum seekers leave China

Kirk Troy

VOA News (16.05.2002)/ HRWF International Secretariat (21.05.2002) C Website: www.hrwf.net - Email: info@hrwf.net - Two North Korean asylum seekers who sought refuge at the Canadian embassy in Beijing have left China. They left late Wednesday for Singapore and are expected to continue on to South Korea.

Canadian embassy officials in Beijing confirmed the departure of the two North Koreans, following days of diplomatic negotiations. The young married couple, said to be in their 20s, had been asking for political asylum in Seoul since they entered Canada's embassy on Saturday.

The two were the latest in a growing number of North Koreans who enter foreign embassies in China in the hope of making their way to South Korea. The defectors cause a diplomatic headache for China, which is a close Communist ally of the North.

A separate incident, in which five North Koreans were seized at the Japanese consulate in the northern Chinese city of Shenyang, has caused a diplomatic row between China and Japan. The two sides are reportedly near reaching a settlement.

To prevent further such incidents, China has tightened security around foreign diplomatic missions in Beijing.

Tens-of-thousands of North Koreans are believed to have crossed the border to China in an attempt to flee hunger at home. China treats the defectors as illegal economic migrants, not political refugees, and deports them to North Korea where, human rights groups say, they will likely face harsh treatment by the authorities.