Why Is China So Tough on N.Korean Defectors?

[xomputer]

About a dozen North Korean defectors are apparently living in the South Korean Embassy in Beijing as well as the consulates general in Shanghai and Shenyang. One or two North Korean teenagers are said to have been living at the consulate in Shenyang for three years.

The defectors spend their day watching TV since they are not allowed to leave the buildings. One defector who spent more than a year in the consulate in Shanghai from 2008 said, "Teenage defectors are under a lot of stress from the long period of confinement and often suffer from depression and insomnia."

From the late 1990s to early 2000s, when the mass exodus of North Korean defectors began, Korean consulates and other diplomatic missions were the favored places for them to seek refuge. China allowed them to head to South Korea when they had spent a certain time in diplomatic missions. At one time, there were apparently more than 50 North Koreans being housed at the Embassy in Beijing.

But Beijing's approach changed when North Koreans tried to use almost all overseas diplomatic missions in Beijing as refuges. Around the mid-2000s, China began to stop North Koreans hiding out in diplomatic missions in Beijing from heading to Seoul. Experts say this was largely due to protests from Pyongyang.

Former North Korean leader Kim Jong-il apparently demanded Beijing deal sternly with the defectors. Activists supporting defectors say Pyongyang began to view them as the biggest threat to the regime after Kim collapsed with a massive stroke in August 2008, and China agreed.

As a result, far fewer North Koreans now seek refuge in diplomatic missions. A senior government official said, "There are still no signs that China changing its hard line on North Korean defectors, including children and teens. The problem at the moment is that there is little chance of Beijing changing its stance while the international community blasts it over the issue."

 

[Unkotare]

The Chosun Ilbo (English Edition): Daily News from Korea - Can Seoul Blame China for Repatriating N.Koreans?

 

[Unkotare]

The Chosun Ilbo (English Edition): Daily News from Korea - China Lets N.Korean Teenager Go to Seoul

 

[Pilar]

Maybe because they are, after all, strangers?

 

[Unkotare]

Do you treat strangers fleeing for their lives badly in Italy? (and by 'badly' I mean consigning them to almost certain death)

 

[waltky]

Mebbe `cause dey got a big enough population problem as it is.

 

[Unkotare]

China's 'population problem' is taking off rapidly in the other direction.

 

[gxnelson]

The North Korea/China relationship started in the Korean War in the 1950s. After the US backed a South Korean attack into the North, the Communist North was aided by the Chinese government. The two countries have a shared history of communism and are allies. So that's the reason behind China's stance on the defectors.

 

[Franticfrank]

Considering this long relationship, surely the Chinese could treat them a little better. At the same time, blocking the journey to Seoul is ridiculous. The Chinese know quite well about the conditions in NK and why the people are leaving.

 

[Unkotare]

"Treat them better"? How much better do they want than tons and tons of food and fuel aid, not to mention the ultimate guarantor of their very existence?

 

[waltky]

North Korean defectors seeking safe passage to South Korea...

North Koreans in China, Russia seeking safe passage to South Korea
Oct. 13, 2016 - More North Koreans, some of elite status, are becoming resentful of Kim Jong Un’s crackdown against defections.

North Koreans in China and Russia have recently defected from their workplaces, according to multiple South Korean press reports. More than 20 North Korean forced laborers at a construction site in Moscow sought asylum with a U.N. refugee agency and were seeking safe passage to South Korea, Seoul-based television network Channel A reported.

In China, a North Korean agent and translator stationed at Pyongyang's embassy in Beijing also defected, according to South Korea-based defector Ko Yong-hwan. In an interview with news network YTN, Ko said he has intelligence that the translator, though not a diplomat, would have valuable information because of the contacts the defector made with North Korea's state security personnel in China. Ko also said Seoul does not always disclose data on elite defectors who have increasingly become disenchanted with the Kim Jong Un regime.

Ko, the first North Korean diplomat to resettle in the South in 1991, also said the defections may be a response to higher levels of crackdowns under Kim. "The strengthened surveillance and censorship should diminish [defections], but instead the crackdowns are making people more resentful and motivating them to escape," Ko said on Thursday.

South Korean President Park Geun-hye has not stopped encouraging North Koreans to leave their country, weeks after stating they should escape to the "bosom of freedom" in the South. On Thursday, Park said North Koreans are being forced to lead a "hellish life" under the Kim regime, and that she would open all pathways to defection, local newspaper Hankook Ilbo reported.

North Koreans in China, Russia seeking safe passage to South Korea

See also:

North Korea could be banned from sporting events, U.N. official says
Oct. 13, 2016 - Marzuki Darusman said ethically motivated sanctions could pressure Pyongyang to improve its human rights.

North Korea could be banned from participating in international sporting events under a boycott similar to the embargo on sporting contacts placed on South Africa under apartheid. Marzuki Darusman, the United Nations' special rapporteur on North Korea, said Thursday an effective means of pressuring North Korea on human rights would be to limit Pyongyang's participation in international games like the Olympics, South Korean news agency Yonhap reported.

Darusman was speaking at a conference on North Korea human rights in Seoul, where U.S. North Korea human rights envoy Ambassador Robert King; Signe Poulsen, chief of the U.N. Human Rights Office in Seoul; and Park Hyung-joong, a researcher at the Korea Institute for National Unification, offered opinions on human rights.[ North Korea has been condemned for its political prison camps, forced labor and summary executions, and Seoul recently passed its first North Korea human rights act in September. The current pressure on Pyongyang may not be enough, however, to push it on the path of reform.

Darusman said ethically motivated sanctions like a sporting ban on North Korea is needed, given conditions in the country, adding such sanctions could become a greater worldwide movement. King said on Thursday there is a hunger for information in North Korea and that information must be delivered to the society, while suggesting improvements in human rights would come about as the international community continues to find ways to deliver media and data into the country.

King also said the U.S. decision to place Kim Jong Un on a list of human-rights offenders was not an easy choice, but because Kim is responsible for numerous rights abuses the decision was made to place the North Korean leader under sanctions. The situation in North Korea is motivating more people to leave the country, and, according to Park, a "mass exodus" could take place after the country reaches a certain threshold of defections. On Wednesday a South Korean government source said a high-level state security official defected to the South in 2015.

North Korea could be banned from sporting events, U.N. official says

 

[esthermoon]

That's a non sense! Sport should have anything to do with politics! Why do they want to ban North Korea from sporting competitions?
I don't get it!