By Kim Young-jin
A U.S. activist group Tuesday urged President Barack Obama to ask Chinese President Hu Jintao to end Beijing’s policy of repatriating North Korean refugees when the two meet in Washington next week.
The North Korean Freedom Coalition (NKFC), led by prominent human rights activist Suzanne Scholte, made the request in a letter and will hold a candlelight vigil next Wednesday near the White House, where Obama is slated to host Hu for a state dinner.
China treats North Korean refugees as economic migrants rather than refugees and repatriates those they apprehend under a reported agreement with the North, its ideological ally, drawing criticism from rights groups.
The policy “has prolonged this refugee crisis by allowing the regime in North Korea to resist taking any reforms that would create an environment in which its citizens do not want to flee,” the group said.
North Korea issues including its nuclear program and provocative behavior are expected to figure heavily in the summit talks.
Up to 300,000 North Korean refugees are estimated to be hiding in China, most of who hope to defect to South Korean or another country. Those repatriated to the North are believed to receive harsh punishment, including imprisonment in labor camps, torture and even death.
Scholte blamed the policy for leading to a dire situation for female refugees, as many become victims of human trafficking.
“These women are our mothers, or sisters, and our daughters who are being bought and sold like animals just because they went to China to try to feed their starving children and families in North Korea,” said Scholte.
Obama should press Hu to allow the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) access to the refugees that Beijing currently restricts, the group said.
More the 20,000 North Koreans have defected to the South since the end of the Korean War (1950-53), while some 100 are living in the United States under the North Korean Human Rights Act of 2004.
China is a signatory to the 1951 U.N. Convention relating to the status of refugees, which requires countries to grant asylum to those within its borders with a genuine fear of persecution in their country due to race, nationality, religion, and political reasons, among others.