NORTH KOREA

BREAKING NEWS

Today, 14 March, at 9:50 hrs local time, a group of twenty-five North Korean defectors entered the Spanish Embassy in Beijing to seek asylum.

Some of the defectors are ill and need immediate medical attention.

Through its correspondents in Beijing, Human Rights Without Frontiers has obtained the list with the names of the defectors, their appeal to the international community and their request for refugee status

To any and all who will listen

At Spanish Embassy in Beijing/ Time:9:30 , 14th March 2002

By the request of North Korean defectors, International Human Rights Volunteers and Tokyo-based NGO "Life Funds for North Korean Refugees" (both associate members of Human Rights Without Frontiers) deliver this statement to all media people concerned

Today we stand before you, 25 North Korean refugees, driven together by danger and desperation. We are six families and two orphan girls, and 8 of our members are children.

All 25 of us seek, above all else, to apply for refugee status. However, the current practice of the Chinese local authorities is to carry out unconditional and forced repatriation of North Korean defectors, and the subsequent persecution by the state in North Korea has forced us to seek help from the international community. For this purpose, we have entered your office for your protection until refugee status is granted to all of us. Many of us find it necessary to conceal our identities for fear of dangerous repercussions to our loved ones who remain in North Korea. For the same reason, we respectfully request that pictures of some of us not be taken.

At separate times in 2001 we defected from North Korea in search of food and freedom from oppression. Most of us were caught by Chinese security officials and were then subjected to forced deportation to North Korea. After repatriation, we endured months of detention in North Korea that can only be described as atrocious. As time went on, each of us seized the first opportunity to escape to China again. At present we have come from several different locations in China with the help of foreigners. We wholeheartedly thank them for their vital humanitarian help to our plight.

If we are forcibly repatriated to North Korea by the Chinese government yet again, without doubt, our lives will be in the greatest possible jeopardy. Moreover, there is no doubt in our minds that our freedoms in North Korea will be denied in light of the record of our earlier defections and this current attempt to go to South Korea. Yet we believe we are fully within our rights under universally accepted international law. Our individual requests for refugee status and testimonies of persecution experienced in North Korea are attached herewith. Our names are also attached herewith.

We are now at the point of such desperation and live in such fear of persecution within North Korea that we have come to the decision to risk our lives for freedom rather than passively await our doom. Some of us carry poison on our person to commit suicide if the Chinese authorities should choose once again to send us back to North Korea.

The only power we have left is to appeal to you on our knees and with tear.

Request for refugee status

I have defected from the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea (DPRK) in search of food and freedom. Without question, I will be persecuted if I am to be sent back to the DPRK (DPRK Criminal Code, Article 47). I beseech you not to repatriate me against my will.

Accordingly, I claim with certainty my right to refugee status under the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees, Article 1, Para A, 2, and 1967 Protocol, Article 1, Para 2, (quoted overleaf) to which the Peoples Republic of China is a signatory.

Under my current precarious circumstances, I am requesting to be placed in the interview procedure for refugee status determination in accordance with the above Convention, Article 33. I am fully convinced that the above-mentioned Convention is an inviolable international law that supercedes the existing Extradition Treaty between the Peoples Republic of China and Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea (UN Charter, Chapter XIV, article 103).

As a foreigner, I further request from the Chinese government due protection under the Constitution of the Peoples Republic of China, Article 32, Para 2.

Date:
Name:
Signature:

Constitution of the Peoples Republic of China C 1993

Article 32

The Peoples Republic of China protects the lawful rights and interests of foreigners within Chinese territory; foreigners on Chinese territory must abide by the laws of the Peoples Republic of China. The Peoples Republic of China may grant asylum to foreigners who request it for political reasons.

1951 Convention relating to the status of refugees

Article 1, Para A.

1. For the purposes of the present Convention, the term "refugee" shall apply to any person who:

Article 1, Para A (2)

As a result of events occurring before 1 January 1951 and owing to well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion, is outside of the country of his nationality and is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself of the protection of that country; or who, not having a nationality and being outside the country of his former habitual residence as a result of such events, is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to return to it.

Article 33

No Contracting State shall expel or return ("refouler") a refugee in any manner whatsoever to the frontiers of territories where his life or freedom would be threatened on account of his race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion.

1967 Protocol relating to the status of refugees

Article 1, Para 2

For the purpose of the present Protocol, the term "refugee" shall, except as regards the application of paragraph 3 of this article, mean any person within the definition of article 1 of the Convention as if the words "As a result of events occurring before 1 January 1951 and" and the words "as a result of such events" in article 1 A (2) were omitted.

Human Rights Without Frontiers calls on

• the international community to take the necessary measures to ensure the fair treatment of the twenty-five North Koreans seeking refuge at the Spanish Embassy in Beijing and all other North Korean people who live in hiding and fear deportation. Apart from the simple necessities on a day-to-day basis, the thousands of North Korean refugees in China, Russia and Mongolia need recognition by the international community of their status as refugees and full respect for their human rights, protection, and security.