ed Safety of young refugees

Utmost diplomatic efforts needed to prevent reprisal

The United Nations has asked North Korea to ensure the safety of nine young North Korean refugees who were sent back home earlier this week via China after being apprehended in Laos. ``I have very real concerns about the penalties and treatment they could face if returned to North Korea and all the concerned authorities have an urgent responsibility to ensure their protection,’’ Marzuki Darusman, U.N. special rapporteur on North Korea, said in a statement.

The statement came after the South Korean government asked for the U.N.’s help in ensuring the safety of the defectors, many of whom are orphans. It’s questionable whether these efforts will be effective in protecting them, given the North’s track record of being unresponsive to international opinion.

The latest repatriations proved there are big holes in our intelligence and diplomatic readiness and capabilities. While South Korean agents and diplomats were tepid and easygoing throughout the tragic incident, their North Korean counterparts were swift, systematic and active. It’s deplorable that those young defectors, reported to be aged between 15 and 23, should fear facing severe punishment ― even execution ― because of indifference and incompetence on the part of our public servants.

According to press reports, the seven men and two women arrested in Laos on May 10 were returned to China Monday then flown to Pyongyang the following day. It was unusual that South Korean diplomats were not allowed to meet them while they were detained in the Laotian capital of Vientiane for 18 days. But the diplomats just waited, not paying any attention to warnings from a missionary who was guiding the refugees regarding the moves by both Laos and North Korea.

It’s shameful to hear that our diplomats were notified of the defectors’ deportation only after they had left Laos for China. Given press reports that the son of a Japanese woman abducted by the North in the 1970s was allegedly among the nine refugees, they should have acted more swiftly and prudently, but did not.

North Korea has stepped up its border surveillance with China since Kim Jong-un took power in late 2011 in another round of father-to-son hereditary power transfer, branding defectors as ``traitors.’’ As a result, the number of North Korean defectors that entered the South fell from 2,929 in 2009 to 1,509 last year. When repatriated, defectors face prison terms, torture and even execution.

It’s true that the problem of North Korean defectors is a diplomatically sensitive issue because of dissenting opinions on their legal status, but this can’t be an excuse for neglecting them. Our authorities have an obligation to protect them because they are our citizens under the Constitution.

It’s clear in this regard that our government must make its utmost diplomatic efforts to ensure the repatriated youngsters won’t fall victim to reprisals in the Stalinist state. President Park Geun-hye, in particular, needs to raise the defectors’ issue during her summit meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping in late June. Needless to say, the government must get to the bottom of the incident and reprimand those responsible for the diplomatic gaffe and come up with viable measures to protect the defectors.