Court Grants Refugee Status to Two Falun Gong Trainees
By Bae Ji-sook
Staff Reporter
A court acknowledged two Chinese Falun Gong trainees as ``refugees'' Thursday, the first such ruling in Asia for the ``mind and body cultivation'' trainees.
Seoul Administration Court ruled in favor of the two Chinese nationals who filed a suit against the Korean justice minister's decision of refusing to grant them refugee status. The court said in the ruling that: ``The two complainants were able to prove their suppression by the Chinese government over their training. Also they have been leading Falun Gong activities in Korea ― which may draw the attention of the Chinese government ― and the fact that if they were to be deported, they would undergo suppression once again, sounds very reliable.''
However, the court rejected 30 other requests for acknowledgement because they could not prove being suppressed for their training activities nor for taking leading roles in Korea concerning their belief.
Falun Gong was introduced to the public in China by Li Hongzhi in 1992 as a form of Qi practice. In 1999, following seven years of rapid growth in the mainland, the Chinese government banned the practice, declaring the trainees as a ``highly organized political group opposed to the Communist Party and the central government.''