The issue garnering the greatest attention in the news these days seems to be the war between Israel and Hamas. While it is important, I hope more people will pay attention to the 600 North Korean defectors who were just forcibly repatriated from China to North Korea. There are still around 1,000 other North Korean defectors who need help to avoid being repatriated.
I can understand what they are going through. I was also forcibly repatriated to North Korea.
Forced repatriation causes direct and indirect human rights abuses to those who have escaped North Korea. Human rights violations caused by forced repatriation are widespread.
The first violation is a violation of the right to life. Most North Koreans escape solely to survive. That was the case for me. After my father died of starvation in 1997, my mom and sister left home to find food. At that time, I was only 11 years old.
I left home alone and I went without food for six days. My situation was so desperate that I didn’t think I would see the sun rise again. I even wrote a will. Luckily, my mother returned before I could die, but her first words to me were "Let us all die together." But death does not come so easily.
In February 1999, I escaped from North Korea. My mother said, "If we're going to starve to death here, it’s better to be shot to death trying to cross the Tumen River.”
The second violation is the right to renounce citizenship. North Korean refugees, like all human beings, should have the right to renounce their nationality. However, we never get a chance to renounce. Chinese authorities don’t ask what we are trying to escape from, and even if they did ask, it might not be safe to answer.
The third is a violation of freedom of religion. Those who have been involved with churches in China are subjected to harsh interrogation. I never saw anyone who faced those interrogations released from detention. Merely meeting a Christian in China makes one a political criminal.
The fourth is a violation of personal liberty. North Koreans who are repatriated often face torture during interrogations. Everyone is strip-searched and has their money confiscated. Any expression of shame is met with insults and beatings. As North Koreans, we are denied our humanity.
Pregnant women, who most need protection, are subjected to unspeakable abuse, beatings and in some cases forced abortions.
When my family and I were apprehended by Chinese police, my mom was breastfeeding my younger brother who was born in China. Because of that, when we were in jail, she almost died of breast inflammation. But, she could not say anything. If she spoke up, it would only make things worse.
"You are nothing more than human garbage" is a common phrase used by regime officials.
Forced repatriation is also accompanied by human rights violations in China. In the Chinese border security centers, we were forced to defecate in plastic buckets in cells with surveillance cameras operating 24 hours a day and sometimes had to listen to the sounds of screams as people were beaten and shocked with electric batons. The human rights violations that occur during and after forced repatriation are ruthless and dehumanizing.
The mere possibility of forced repatriation violates the human rights of North Korean defectors in China. My family suffered the unforgettable trauma suffered by my sister. When she was only 14 years old, she was kidnapped and sexually assaulted by someone in a passing car on the roadside on our first night in China.
We were unable to report it or punish the perpetrator. If we tried to report it, it was obvious that the Chinese police would hastily send us back to North Korea rather than try to catch the criminal.
The constant threat of forced repatriation takes away the voice of North Korean refugees who have not been paid for their labor and who have been abused physically and emotionally.
Silencing North Korean defectors is silencing victims at risk of forced repatriation. It creates a vicious cycle that enables continued crimes against them in China.
Therefore, stopping forced repatriation is a key element in breaking the cycle of human trafficking, sexual violence, labor exploitation and other crimes against North Koreans in China, in addition to the direct human rights abuses caused by forced repatriation itself.
Forced repatriation can only be stopped by the Chinese government. So solidarity between international North Korean human rights groups, including the United Nations, and countries that sympathize with the plight of North Korean escapees is very important.
North Korean refugees are a minority among the minorities seen in South Korean society and international society. Our voices alone can only bring about so much change in China. We need the international community to rescue North Koreans.
I hope my message becomes like a snowball, gathering more voices and more activism as it rolls. When you build up the courage to join, together we can become a powerful voice to bring about change in the Chinese government.
Kim Eun-ju is a member of the Freedom Speakers International (FSI) External Cooperation Team and co-author of her autobiography “A Thousand Miles to Freedom.” This article is based on her speech on October 25, 2023, at an FSI forum hosted at the Amnesty International UK headquarters in London.