NORTH KOREA
The rush of North Korean defectors to foreign embassies goes on
Around 30 asylum-seekers still in Chinese custody. If repatriated to North Korea, they would face severe punishment
Sixteen North Koreans, 8 men and 8 women including a 15 year-old girl, entered the compound of the German Embassy in Beijing on 3 September to seek refugee status and go to South Korea for freedom. They spent two nights on the street in Beijing before they finally entered the premise with the assistance of international human rights volunteers. On 4 September, German and Chinese authorities started talks on the fate of the 16 North Koreans in the German Embassy compound.
In the last few months, the international community has witnessed an unremitting string of North Korean defections into foreign embassies in China, and even Chinese government agencies:
- On September 2, some eleven North Korean defectors were arrested while attempting to enter the Equadorian Embassy in Beijing;
- On August 31, the Chinese authorities ambushed a group of eleven North Korean defectors and a South Korean aid worker on their way to Beijing and arrested an unknown number of them in Changchun in North East China;
- On August 26, eight North Koreans visited the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs to file their applications for refugee status. They were immediately arrested on the spot by the Chinese authorities.
5 September 2002
North Korean defectors at the German Embassy compound
Germans start talks in China on the fate of North Koreans
JoongAng Ilbo (05.09.2002)/ HRWF International Secretariat (05.09.2002) C Website: www.hrwf.net - Email: info@hrwf.net - Germany and China began negotiations on the fate of 15 North Korean asylum-seekers who entered a German school in Beijing. Twenty-one other North Koreans in a South Korean diplomatic building in Beijing were scheduled to arrive in Manila enroute to Seoul Thursday, but their departure has been delayed by at least a day, the Yonhap news agency reported from Manila.
On Tuesday, the 15 North Koreans climbed the wall of a German school and a diplomatic residential complex in Beijing. German diplomats there said the compound is a national diplomatic site, giving hope of expatriation to the North Koreans who made their way there from North Korea. German media said Wednesday Beijing will probably handle the 15 North Koreans by expelling them to a third country where the group can make its way to Seoul.
"The North Koreans made it clear that they want to go to the South," the German weekly Der Spiegel reported, but the German Foreign Ministry rebuffed other questions.
The 21 North Koreans who had sought asylum at the visa office of the South Korean Embassy in Beijing were delayed in leaving Beijing for Manila for unknown reasons. Manila told the Foreign Ministry here Wednesday that the group would travel on Friday at the earliest, Yonhap said.
"We have given them permission. As is the usual practice, they will take the first available flight to Seoul," Manila's foreign affairs undersecretary Lauro Baja was quoted by Reuters earlier Wednesday. The group is composed of nine men and 12 women, ranging in age from a five-month old infant to a 62-year-old man.
Lee Hoi-chang, the Grand National Party's presidential candidate now visiting China, urged Wednesday that China grant refugee status to North Korean defectors. He said China's leader, Jiang Zemin, promised to handle the defectors in a humanitarian way. But China's Foreign Ministry complained Tuesday about press coverage of defectors' attempts to enter foreign missions and about groups that aid defectors. The defectors are in China illegally, a ministry official told Yonhap
North Korean defectors arrested while attempting to enter the Equadorian Embassy in Beijing
Chinese Police thwart an escape attempt by North Koreans
By Elisabeth Rosenthal
w York Times (03.09.2002)/HRWF International Secretariat (05.09.2002) C Website: www.hrwf.net - Email: info@hrwf.net - More than a dozen North Korean refugees rushed the fence of a heavily guarded compound of diplomatic buildings in central Beijing today in an attempt to gain freedom and the world's attention.
The police, apparently anticipating the attempt, had surrounded the complex, and their response was swift and furious.
Most of the North Koreans, including at least two teenage girls, were pushed to the ground and dragged into waiting police vans before even making it to the top of the compound's eight-foot-high metal fence. At least two men made it into the compound and sprinted into the maze of buildings, with the police some in plain clothes and some in uniform in hot pursuit.
For hours after the 3:15 p.m. attempt, dozens of police officers staked out the lobbies of the buildings and patrolled the halls and walkways of the compound, called the Sanlitun Diplomatic Compound. It houses dozens of small embassy offices as well as apartments allocated mostly to diplomats and foreign journalists.
The group was aiming to go to the Ecuadorean Embassy, which is in a building yards from the fence, acquaintances of the group said. At least some of those involved had provided prior statements to journalists indicating that their goal was political asylum in the United States.
This was among the most dramatic episodes in an escalating battle of wills here involving North Koreans who are here illegally and who have tried to enter foreign embassies in an effort to gain asylum. Daring acts by North Koreans brought an intensified Chinese crackdown, which in turn has brought even more escape attempts.
While embassies in Beijing have been tightly guarded and surrounded by barbed wire since the asylum effort began this spring, security at the city's four diplomatic compounds has remained low key, with only a couple of guards at each gate. Uniformed police officers normally do not enter these complexes.
This morning, though, dozens of police reinforcements congregated outside the fence and blocked the main gate.
At least one North Korean made it into the nine-story building across from the fence, which houses offices of Ecuador, Peru and Croatia, among others, witnesses in the building said, though he later fled out a back window. People answering the phone at those three embassies denied harboring North Koreans.
As the North Koreans started to clamber over the fence at several places and swarms of shouting police officers raced over to tackle them, diplomats' children burst into tears in the nearby playground and mothers leaned out of windows beckoning them home.
The group seeking asylum included some who were relatively new to China and others who had been in China illegally for years, said someone familiar with the members.
Dozens of North Korean refugees who have taken refuge in foreign embassies here have been granted safe passage out of the country by the Chinese this year, although often after weeks of haggling and delay. Officially all have left for either Singapore or the Philippines. But all have quickly flown on to South Korea, where they have settled.
Some have occasionally expressed interest in asylum in the United States, generally because they had worked in the North Korean government or had been in open conflict with it at home. These people feared they would be at risk from North Korean agents in the South.
Some who have made it in the past have straggled into embassies on their own in small groups, but others have gone in well-organized parties, often with the help of foreign human rights groups. Experts estimate that more than 100,000 North Koreans are living illegally in China, where they have settled after fleeing both hunger and repression. Many have lived quietly underground here for years, doing menial labor.
But since the embassy defections this year, Chinese authorities have conducted sweeps and sought to drive them home. Once repatriated, they at the very least face intense criticism and brief detention. Former officials and those who have brought public dishonor to North Korea have been shot.
The North Koreans involved in today's action would certainly face severe punishment.
With the pressure on in China, some North Koreans have gone deep into hiding, and others have turned to increasingly desperate acts like the one today. With larger embassies now ringed by barbed wire, the diplomatic compounds were something of a natural target.
In the past, embassies entered by the refugees including those of Spain, South Korea, the United States and Canada have served as the Koreans' advocates, negotiating their release with the Chinese.
But the diplomatic compounds are essentially an international no man's land, and it is not clear whether any country will press for this group's release or at least insist that they not be sent back to North Korea.
North Koreans thwarted in asylum bid
By John Pomfret
Washington Post (03.09.2002)/HRWF International Secretariat (05.09.2002) C Website: www.hrwf.net - Email: info@hrwf.net - Chinese police and security guards today prevented a dozen North Koreans from seeking political asylum in the embassy of Ecuador, capturing eight people as they tried to climb a ladder into the diplomatic mission while four others ran away, witnesses said.
Police menaced foreign reporters attempting to cover the break-in. A German cameraman was beaten and kicked, and his footage was confiscated, a foreign witness said.
The incident was the latest in a series of attempts by North Korean refugees to flee China for South Korea. Tens of thousands of refugees are in hiding in northeastern China after escaping harsh conditions and political and religious oppression in neighboring North Korea.
North Koreans have been breaking into foreign missions in Beijing and elsewhere in China for months. China has allowed those who gain entry to leave China, first to a third country and then to South Korea. More than 80 have made the trip. But China has also stepped up forced repatriation of North Korean asylum-seekers along its border with North Korea and has tightened security in Beijing and elsewhere, looking for refugees.
Security in Beijing was intensified in recent days after police detained seven North Korean refugees attempting to protest in front of the Foreign Ministry for refugee status on behalf of other North Korean migrants, according to South Korean news sources. Police in the embassy district were put on heightened alert after police detained a South Korean and a group of North Korean refugees in the northern city of Changchun on Saturday night.
Norbert Vollertsen, a German physician and advocate for the refugees, said the group -- five men, five women and a 15-year-old boy -- was picked up at the city's railroad station while waiting to board a train for Beijing.
The North Koreans captured today were trying to enter a fenced-in office complex that includes the Ecuadoran Embassy. Two refugees made it over the fence but were grabbed by security guards, witnesses said. Police and security guards nabbed at least eight people in all, while four struggled free and ran off, bleeding after confrontations with Chinese police and security staff, according to South Korean reporters who witnessed the incident.
China has an agreement with North Korea to forcibly repatriate North Korean refugees. China's policy, which it intermittently enforces, has been criticized by rights groups, U.S. lawmakers and the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees because of the potential consequences facing North Koreans who are sent home. Some groups allege that North Korea tortures, imprisons and even executes the returnees.
Chinese police also have stepped up surveillance of South Korean reporters, who often have advance notice of the refugee break-ins, the reporters said. On Saturday night, police visited the home of Yeo Si Dong, the bureau chief of Chosun Ilbo, South Korea's biggest newspaper.
Yeo said the police inquired about his residency permit. "But when they left my house, I noticed that files pertaining to North Korean refugees had disappeared," he said, adding that he suspected the police had taken them.
North Korean asylum-seekers arrested at the Chinese Foreign Ministry
Eight North Koreans caught by the Chinese Police while trying to submit their applications for refugee status
HRWF International Secretariat (05.09.2002) C Website: www.hrwf.net - Email: info@hrwf.net - Eight North Korean defectors were caught by the Chinese police on 26 August while trying to enter the Chinese Foreign Ministry to submit applications seeking refugee status.
The names and ages of the 8 identified North Korean refugees in custody are as follows:
Ms. Seong-hee CHO (16)
Ms. Seong-hwa HAN (45), Seong-hee?s mother
Ms. Hyun-hee CHO (12), Seong-hee?s sister
Ms. Yeon-hee KIM (31)
Ms. Il-hyun CHO (10), Yeon-hee?s daugher
Ms. Jin-hee CHOI (28)
Mr. Kwon CHUNG (28)
Mr. Young-ho CHO (20)
North Koreans fail in Beijing asylum bid
By Leta Hong Fincher
Voice of America News (26.08.2002)/HRWF International Secretariat (05.09.2002) C Website: www.hrwf.net - Email: info@hrwf.net A group of people believed to be North Koreans reportedly attempted to seek refuge today inside China's Foreign Ministry in Beijing. Instead, they were arrested and charged with holding an illegal protest.
A South Korean diplomat says seven North Koreans seeking political asylum tried to enter the Chinese Foreign Ministry compound here on Monday afternoon. The diplomat, who asked not to be identified, also says the group was carrying signs reading "Recognize North Korean defectors as refugees," and "Give us freedom."
The Foreign Ministry refuses to confirm that the seven were North Koreans or that they were seeking refuge. In a statement faxed to reporters Monday, a Chinese government spokesman said only that police arrested some people of unknown origin, and their identity is being investigated.
The statement says the people did not apply for permission from Beijing's Security Bureau to hold a demonstration. It says they are therefore in violation of China's laws on protests and assembly, and will be dealt with accordingly.
Dozens of North Koreans have successfully sought asylum at foreign diplomatic missions in Beijing and other Chinese cities this year, and the Chinese have allowed most of these defectors to leave for South Korea via a third country. Monday's action is believed to be the first time North Koreans have applied for asylum directly from the Chinese government.
A refugee aid group in Seoul, Good Friends, says Monday's request for refuge reveals the desperation of many North Korean refugees in China.
"They're trying everything to escape from this agonizing situation in China," said Erica Kang, a coordinator for the group. "For six or seven years, it's been going on like this. It's heading towards a long-term refugee situation, where there is no temporary shelter, there's no temporary permission to stay in China."
Ms. Kang says tens of thousands of North Koreans have fled to neighboring China to escape hunger and persecution. But China and North Korea are allies, and Beijing is required by treaty to send North Korean asylum seekers back home. The Chinese government officially classifies North Koreans who illegally cross the border into China as economic migrants, not refugees.
The surge of asylum-seekers has caused China considerable embarrassment this year, and diplomatic disputes with several countries. The government has responded by placing more armed guards outside foreign embassies and consulates, and surrounding the buildings with barbed wire fences.
How defections can throw a spotlight on the plight of North Koreans fleeing across the border into China
Chronology of events (Update: late June - early September)
June 28, 2002 - China has arrested three missionaries -- two South Koreans and a Korean-American -- and placed them in long-term detention on charges of assisting North Korean defectors' illegal departures to a third country. John Daniel Choi was arrested in May, Choi Bong-il was arrested in May, and Chun ki-won was arrested in November 2001.
A group of 12 North Koreans, who were being helped by Mr Chun to flee to Mongolia, were arrested along with him. It has been reported that they are ready to be sent back to North Korea.
July 10, 2002 - Chun Ki-won, 46, a member of "Durihana Mission," underwent a trial in Hailar, a city in China's Inner Mongolia region.
The group of 12 North Korean defectors, made up mostly of women and children, face the likelihood of being sent back to their country. They are in detention at a prison in Inner Mongolia after being taken into Chinese custody in December last year along with Mr Chun accused of helping them enter China.
The sources say it is highly likely the group will be repatriated to North Korea, after being tried for illegal entry, as well as buying and using false identification cards. Chinese authorities have repeatedly said the defectors will be dealt with according to the law.
Because of media coverage of their plight, there's concern among observers in both South Korea and the United States that the defectors will face severe punishment once back in North Korea and could be sent to concentration camps for political offenders or even executed.
August 1, 2002 C Chun Ki-won has been informed that the 12 North Korean refugees caught with him were sent from Manzhouli, the northern tip of China near Russian border, to Tumen n ear North Korean border to be reopatriated to North Korea.They are believed to be in the Tumen North Korean Refugee Detention Center waiting the fatal call.
August 3, 2002 C Eleven North Koreans who entered the South Korean Embassy in Beijing in July to seek refuge were allowed a safe passage to South Korea via Manila.
August 13, 2002 C Two North Koreans climbed over a fence into the Albanian embassy in Beijing and demanded political asylum in South Korea.The Chinese government is reportedly allowing them to leave for a third country.
August 26, 2002 C The Chinese police arrested eight North Korean defectors, four men and four women, as they attempted to enter Chinas Ministry of Foreign Affairs building to demand refugee status. They handed over a prepared application for refugee protection to armed policemen on duty at the entrance but all were arrested as they unfolded a placard that read "approve our status as refugees". This is the first such demonstration demanding refugee status directly to Beijing.
August 31, 2002 C A group of 11 North Korean defectors, 5 women, 5 men and a 15 year-old boy, were arrested by the Chinese authorities near the railway station in Changchun, Jilin Province (north-eastern part of China). Mr Kim Hee Tae, a South Korean aid worker, was with them at the time of the arrest and was also arrested.
September 2, 2002 C Chinese police and security guards prevented a dozen North Koreans from seeking political asylum in the embassy of Equador, capturing eight people as they tried to climb a ladder into the diplomatic mission while four others ran away. witnesses said.
Police menaced foreign reporters attempting to cover the break-in. A German cameraman was beaten and kicked, and his footage was confiscated, a foreign witness said.
The Chinese police launched a large-scale search for the 4 North Koreans in the area where the embassy is located.
September 3, 2002 C 16 North Korean defectors managed to make their way into a compound housing a school run by the German Embassy in Beijing, immediately calling got asylum in South Korea and other countries. A number of other North Korean asylum seekers also tried unsuccessfully to enter the building.
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