North Korean Refugees Face Extradition

Nine North Korean defectors, including an 11-month-old baby, are believed to be held by the Chinese police in the Tumen River region, near China’s border with North Korea. The defectors were initially detained by the Vietnamese police on Oct. 22 due to the lack of travel documents in the Vietnamese city of Mong Cai, near the Chinese border. A few days later, the Vietnamese police handed them over to the Chinese police. At the time of arrest, the baby was taken away from the group while the other eight North Koreans were later transported to Shenyang in Northeast China.

The exact whereabouts of the defectors are currently unknown. Human Rights Watch (HRW), a non-governmental organization based in the U.S., says that the defectors are possibly being detained in a military garrison near the Tumen River. Given the proximity of the Tumen River to North Korea, HRW worries that repatriation of the defectors could be imminent.

North Korean defectors held in China are also usually extradited back to North Korea where they face imprisonment, torture, or even death. According to HRW, extradited North Koreans are accused of  “treachery against the nation,” which is punishable by death. Most of the accused are sent to political prison camps that are characterized by “torture, violence, forced abortion, and severe deprivation.”

The 1951 Refugee Convention and the 1967 Protocol prohibit a state from returning refugees to a “place where their life or freedom would be threatened.” Nevertheless, and despite being a signatory of this convention, China regularly sends defectors back to North Korea because they are labeled economic migrants instead of political refugees. Furthermore, China justifies repatriation based on the “Mutual Cooperation Protocol for the Work of Maintaining National Security and Social Order and the Border Areas,” an agreement signed in 1986 that “obliges China and North Korea to prevent illegal border crossings of residents.”

In an open letter, HRW urged the South Korean government to dissuade China from repatriating the defectors caught in Vietnam. South Korean President Park Geun-hye’s office announced that it will consider all diplomatic means to prevent forced return of the nine North Koreans and to secure their freedom to travel to the destination of their choice.

Since the 1990s, almost 28,000 North Koreans have escaped North Korea and resettled in South Korea. In the peak year in 2009 alone, more than 2,900 North Koreans escaped to South Korea. However, due to tightened border surveillance and security in North Korea since Kim Jong Un came to power, the number of defectors has gradually decreased. This year, only 1200 refugees are expected to resettle in South Korea, the lowest rate since 2005. In addition to government efforts to secure safety of the nine North Korean defectors, several activist groups have staged protests demanding their freedom in front of the Chinese embassy in Seoul and Washington, D.C. However, China has yet to comment on this subject or release any information on the detained refugees.