Bipartisan resolution urges China to stop repatriating defectors to North Korea


South Korean lawmakers of the National Assembly’s foreign affairs, trade and unification committee have adopted a bipartisan resolution on Friday to urge China to stop its forced repatriation of North Korean defectors.

Their urgent move came as a large group of North Koreans are on the verge of being sent back to the communist state against their will, with the possibility of harsh punishment and even execution if returned home. Some media reports said, quoting unnamed sources, that nine of them have been already deported over the weekend.

The resolution, submitted by Rep. Park Sun-young of the conservative Liberty Forward Party and signed by 29 lawmakers, condemns China’s repatriation policy; urges Beijing to change its stance on North Korean defectors, recognizing them as refugees instead of economic migrants; and calls for the international community’s stronger support for North Korean defectors. Park has been staging a hunger protest for several days in front of the Chinese Embassy in Seoul.

The resolution strongly requests international organizations such as the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees to press the Chinese authorities into stopping the forcible return of North Koreans.

Foreign Minister Kim Sung-hwan told lawmakers at the committee’s meeting that the government will shortly notify China about the parliamentary resolution through all possible diplomatic channels.

Park slammed the Foreign Ministry, saying the government has not even once raised the long-standing issue of North Korean refugees at a meeting of the U.N. Human Rights Council.

“I will raise the issue,” Kim said. The U.N. Human Rights Council is to open its 19th session in Geneva on Monday.

Park also questioned the ministry’s inability to gain precise information about the North Koreans being held by Chinese authorities.

Kim said the ministry only learned that 10 North Koreans arrested in Shenyang on Feb. 8 were all minors with parents in South Korea.

However, Park said the 10 North Koreans included a 70-something senior who has a daughter in South Korea.

“It is a shame that the Foreign Ministry does not even know how things are going,” Park said in a faint voice, apparently due to her hunger strike.

Meanwhile, North Korea’s Uriminzokkiri, the China-based website that carries North Korean news to the world, defended China’s stance, saying South Korea should not interfere with China’s administrative measures.

“South Korea is trying in vain to internationalize the issue of repatriation of North Korean defectors,” the website said in a commentary.

“It is a legitimate duty for a nation to protect its citizens and their interests by securing the safety of its borders.”

China is refusing Seoul’s pleas to recognize North Korean defectors as refugees, saying it will take care of the matter considering domestic laws, international laws and humanitarian perspectives.

By Kim Yoon-mi (yoonmi@heraldcorp.com)