Jung Min-ho has worked as a staff writer at The Korea Times since 2012, mostly covering social and political issues. He currently belongs to the Politics & City Desk where he covers topics such as health, labor and human rights. Prior to joining the team, he was responsible for covering North Korea and sports. His article about a biosecurity breach of Middle East respiratory syndrome won him an award from the Korea Science Journalists Association in 2016. He is also the co-author of the book, "Medical Pioneers of Korea" (2019). He served as the head of the international relations committee at the Journalists Association of Korea from 2021 to 2023.
Rights experts criticize China for denying torture in North Korea
This photo, taken on Sept. 20 from Dandong, China, shows two bridges over the Amnok River between China and North Korea. Human rights experts have recently criticized Beijing for defending Pyongyang by falsely claiming that there is no evidence of torture in North Korea. AFP-Yonhap
By Jung Min-ho
Beijing accused of deliberately lying despite ‘mountain of evidence’
Human rights advocates were shocked last month to find out that hundreds of North Korean escapees were forcibly deported by China after three years of pandemic border restrictions came to an end. Recently, they were shocked again by Beijing’s claim that the principle of non-refoulement cannot be applied to its policy because there is “no evidence of torture” in North Korea.
In its letter to the OHCHR, the Chinese government denied that there are any systemic abuses of human rights in North Korea and maintained that none of those being repatriated “have raised objections on the grounds that they will be subjected to torture.”
The U.N. office’s revelation of the Chinese document last week has received plenty of flak from experts who know the decades-long truth of the torture and other forms of extreme violence enancted against North Koreans who have dared to flee their country.
“In a perverted way, the PRC (People’s Republic of China) is telling its version of the truth. It returns North Koreans to a hostage situation where they cannot document how they have been abused, then says there is no evidence the hostages are being mistreated and please stop nagging them about it,” said Casey Lartigue Jr., co-president of Freedom Speakers International, a Seoul-based NGO that supports North Korean refugees. “Like the getaway driver from a crime scene, the PRC looks straight ahead and denies what happened behind it.”
He said Beijing forces North Korean escapees into a situation where they are not free to independently testify in a public setting, and cannot speak publicly with lawyers or activists who could help them.
“In that way, yes, it is understandable that China can claim it has seen no evidence of torture because it dumps North Koreans into a country that violates their human rights, disregards refugee testimonials and ignores the mountain of reports about North Korea’s rampant abuse of human rights,” he added.
Suzanne Scholte, a renowned U.S. activist promoting North Korean human rights for nearly three decades, thinks the Chinese government is simply lying for its national interest despite its awareness of the widespread state violence in the reclusive country.
“There is overwhelming decades of evidence of eyewitness testimony that any or all North Korean children, women and men will be subjected to imprisonment and torture when they are repatriated,” Scholte, the 2008 Seoul Peace Prize Laureate, said. “If it is found that you were trying to get to South Korea or came in contact with Christian humanitarian workers, you could be sent to immediate death … or a slow death in a political prison camp — again, this is based on eyewitness testimony.”
In the letter, Beijing made it clear that it had no intention of changing its repatriation policy, insisting that it has been fulfilling its international obligations given that the U.N. Convention against Torture applies only to “refugees” and that North Korean escapees do not belong to that category.
Scholte and other rights activists said the only realistic way to bring about any change in the Chinese policy is to sanction those responsible.
“The international community must name and shame China’s 10/9 forcible repatriation and urge respect for the principle of non-refoulement by adopting joint government statements or parliamentary resolutions,” said Shin Hee-seok, a legal analyst at Transitional Justice Working Group, a Seoul-based rights group.