Assembly OKs resolution against repatriation of defectors

The National Assembly on Monday passed a resolution demanding China stop repatriating North Korean defectors to their communist homeland.

The resolution came as several dozen defectors caught in China are reportedly at risk of being deported to the North, where they are feared to face harsh persecution and even execution.

The resolution, submitted by Rep. Park Sun-young of the conservative minor Liberty Forward Party and signed by 29 lawmakers, condemns Beijing's forced repatriation of defectors and calls on China to follow the international law on refugees.

It also demands that the parliament make efforts to help the stateless defectors and the South Korean government provide more assistance when they reach here.

In the National Assembly's plenary session, a total of 154 lawmakers who were present voted for the passage, while two dropped out.

The defector issue has emerged as a possible thorn in relations between Seoul and Beijing, with South Korea taking an unusually tough stance on the latest case. In the past, South Korea sought what is dubbed "quiet diplomacy" with China to settle such issues.

Last week, President Lee Myung-bak urged Beijing to follow international norms on the matter.

China is the only major ally of North Korea and provides diplomatic support and economic assistance to the impoverished nation. Beijing usually repatriates defectors from North Korea, seeing them as economic migrants, not refugees.

Meanwhile, Seoul asked "all countries directly concerned" to refrain from forced repatriation of North Korean defectors.

"The Republic of Korea once again with its profound sincerity urges all countries directly concerned to uphold the principle of non-refoulement, thereby refraining from exposing those in desperate situations to the risk of dire consequences," Ambassador Kim Bong-hyun, deputy minister for multilateral and global affairs, said in a high-level session of the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva.

The defector issue is not a matter of political consideration, but a matter of humanitarian and human rights consideration, Kim added.

(Yonhap)