Civic groups advocating human rights for North Koreans urged China last week to stop repatriating those fleeing the impoverished communist country. The call was made before President Lee Myung-bak kicks off his four-day visit to China on Tuesday. The groups demanded Lee put forward a firm stance on North Korean defectors staying in China during a scheduled summit with Chinese President Hu Jintao.
The rights groups, including Justice for North Korea, said that China should provide shelter to North Korean defectors who they claim are refugees. They expressed growing concerns that Chinese authorities might round up more and more North Korean defectors and forcibly send them back home ahead of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. They have been staging a 444-day campaign to stop the forced repatriation of the defectors. The campaign is scheduled to end on the Aug. 8 opening of the Games.
Beijing has been criticized for its violation of human rights as seen in the bloody suppression of Tibetan demonstrators in March, and the continued crackdown on North Koreans crossing the border into China. However, Beijing seems to be paying little attention to the international criticism. Especially, the May 12 earthquake in Sichuan Province and ensuing aftershocks have virtually muted voices against human rights abuses in the country.
What's more worrisome is that North Korean and Chinese troops have recently tightened their border patrols to stem the exodus of North Korean refugees. The move came before the Beijing Olympics starts and at a time when the world's last Stalinist country is suffering an acute food shortage. A U.S.-based aid organization, Helping Hands Korea, reported the beefed-up border controls, citing eyewitness accounts of its members traveling to the region.
The report said Chinese police are intensifying house-to-house checks to search for North Korean defectors hiding out in the homes of Korean-Chinese. As a result, about 30 percent of defectors are caught and sent back to the North, Helping Hands said. It is apparent that Beijing is making efforts to block the flow of defectors from the North and avoid criticism for its human rights violations prior to the Olympics.
There is no doubt that repatriated defectors are subject to persecution in North Korea. We have often heard reports that many of them are sent to concentration camps. The Chinese authorities should accept calls from the international community to grant refugee status to North Koreans escaping from poverty to protect their basic human rights.
It is heartbreaking to know that most North Korean escapees are living in fear and destitution due to Chinese authorities' crackdown, rights abuses and human trafficking. No one can accurately state the exact number of North Korean defectors staying in China. But some experts project the number at 200,000. Seoul and Beijing ought to take action to help relieve the defectors of their pain and sorrow before it's too late.