China asked not to deport NK escapees

Rep. Ha Tae-keung of the ruling Saenuri Party speaks at a press conference at the National Assembly, Tuesday, showing pictures of the Kim Kwang-ho family, North Korean defectors who returned to the North last year and are now under detention in China after escaping again. / Yonhap

By Jun Ji-hye

Family members of a North Korean defector who allegedly returned to the North last year are under detention in China while attempting to escape from the Stalinist state again, a lawmaker said Tuesday.

The government is pleading Beijing to send them to Seoul.

According to Rep. Ha Tae-keung of the ruling Saenuri Party, a fervent campaigner for freedom in the North, the Kim Kwang-ho family was caught by Chinese police Sunday in Jilin Province after escaping from the North.

Kim and his wife settled in South after their first defection in August 2009, and then returned to the isolated state along with their daughter at the end of last year.

They appeared in the North Korean Central Broadcasting Station in January and claimed: “We could no longer live in the South which is a cesspool of fraud, trickery and wiles.”

Rep. Ha said five family members are under detention in China _ Kim, his wife, his one-year-old daughter and wife’s brother and sister.

Given that Kim, his wife and their daughter are citizens of South Korea, if China sends them to the North, this could create diplomatic problems.

Ha added, Ko Kyung-hee, who appeared in the press conference along with the Kim family, is currently in a Northern prison camp. She came to the South in March 2011, and then went back to the North in October last year.

“As already known, the Kim family was used as a propaganda tool. If they are sent back to the communist state, it will be very difficult to save their lives,” said Ha.

Kim and his wife, according to the first-term lawmaker, returned to the North to bring the remaining family members there back to the South. It was so far uncertain whether the family returned to the North of their own intentions or if they were kidnapped by North Korean authorities.

“North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has taken steps to tighten control on escapees. His country quickly moved to bring nine young defectors aged between 15 and 23 years old in Laos back to the North in May,” said Ha.

“Pyongyang is highly expected to take swift action to return of the Kim family. The government and all relevant officials must not spare efforts to safely bring them to the South.”

Ha said that he expects China to make the right decision.

“I believe Beijing will not turn its back on a task to protect the life of a year old young girl,” he said.

The Chinese government said, while President Park Geun-hye was on a state visit in June, it will look after Seoul’s concern over human rights of North Korean defectors.

It is known that defectors returning to the North face harsh punishment including possible execution.

Given that the Kim family appeared in the state television to hold a press conference to discredit the South and praise the North’s system, there is greater possibility that they will be executed if they are sent back to the North.

If the family enters the South, how they held such press conference will be likely revealed, which the North obviously wants to prevent.

Ha stressed that the fundamental solution to prevent a recurrence of defection and re-defection is to pass a bill on North Korean human rights in the National Assembly.

“I demand the main opposition Democratic Party actively cooperate in setting up the North Korean Human Rights Law,” said Ha.