Activists hold a rally to call on China not to repatriate North Korean escapees detained in the country back to the North, near the Chinese embassy in Seoul, Sept. 4. Korea Times photo by Shim Hyun-chul
Civic groups on North Korea's human rights on Friday staged a rally in front of the Chinese Embassy in Seoul, urging Beijing not to send defectors back to their reclusive country amid apparently eased border controls.
In an open letter addressed to Chinese President Xi Jinping, the activists said over 2,000 North Korean defectors are being held in Chinese detention centers and facing severe punishment, such as the death penalty, if they return to the North.
Pointing out that China is a signatory of a U.N. Convention on refugees that prohibits refoulement, they urged Chinese authorities not to send the defectors back home.
Concerns have grown that defectors could be forcibly repatriated to the North as the secretive regime appears to be opening up its borders recently after years of stringent COVID-19 lockdown.
The rally was held on the occasion of North Korea Freedom Week, an annual campaign that aims to raise public awareness of the humanitarian situation in the reclusive nation. This year's freedom week, the 20th of its kind, runs until Saturday. (Yonhap)
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