China has repatriated North Korean defectors, South Korean official says

[unreal.livejournal.com]

Ignoring international protests, China may have repatriated around 30 North Korean defectors who had been caught while trying to escape their homeland, a South Korean official said Friday.

Park Sun-young, a South Korean lawmaker who had been on hunger strike protesting such repatriations, told CNN she believes the North Koreans have been sent back. CNN cannot in dependently confirm the assertion.

Defectors who have made it to South Korea say anyone sent back faces a long term of imprisonment in a brutal labor camp or even execution.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon, meeting with the South Korean foreign minister Thursday, said he shared Seoul's concerns about defectors and "stressed the importance of giving priority to the international standards and humanitarian considerations for the well-being of those persons."


Almost daily protests in South Korea have called for China to allow the defectors to travel to South Korea, where they would settle. China, however, considers the defectors to be illegal economic migrants and has been sending them back to North Korea for many years.

Defector Lee Ae Ran, who made it to Seoul, says there is added concern about the defectors being caught in China as "Kim Jong Un just took over the leadership and to make his position stable, he's proclaimed that he'll kill all three generations of a defector family."

That claim is reiterated by other defectors and North Korean observers.

Another defector, Won Il, told CNN he was repatriated twice by China while trying to escape North Korea. He was sent to a labor camp where, he said, he saw many die of hunger, malnutrition and exhaustion.

"Captured defectors face a slow death," he said. "There is a place called 'flower garden' where about 2,000 defectors are buried like dogs. The flowers are so red there because of their blood."

Protests are likely to continue in South Korea despite the reports that it may be too late for the 30-some defectors currently in focus.

Source: cnn

Comments

[benihime99.livejournal.com]

I really hope they didn't send them back.

[laceandskin.livejournal.com]

wtf China.

[velveteenkitten.livejournal.com]

Oh, for crying out loud, China!
Why?

"Kim Jong Un proclaimed that he'll kill all three generations of a defector family."

Well, that's just great.

[czarny.livejournal.com]

I don't know why people are acting so surprised. It's disgusting and tragic, yes, but nothing shocking.

[akaich0u.livejournal.com]

mte. This is China.

[tribblenuu.livejournal.com]

oh. what a nice ignorant generalization of an entire country you have there

[akaich0u.livejournal.com]

Oh please. One Communist government doing favors for another and following their philosophy of "ex-patriates do not deserve much" is nothing new. It isn't ignorant nor is it a generalization--it's the truth. The Chinese people/citizens are obviously not at blame--the government and people in power are. That much is obvious.

[eishastan.livejournal.com]

Omg China why? you are sending this poor people to their death...

[valieleen.livejournal.com]

Unfortunately, this has been going on for years and years and years. In another article that I read earlier today, it was mentioned that there are still around 300 north koreans currently held in Chinese prisons.
Still, I had hoped that the petition and protests about these 30 defectors would have some sort of positive impact.

[deerlike.livejournal.com]

This is obviously terrible, but it is standard procedure. The Chinese government and law enforcement have very little patience or sympathy for North Korean defectors. Both countries' border guards are pretty much complicit with each other, and if a person is caught (by a Chinese border guard) while trying to cross into China, they'll be returned back to the other side (to be dealt with).

[deerlike.livejournal.com]

Of course, you will get the occasional Chinese border guard who can be bribed enough to look the other way, which is how it's possible to cross into China at all.

[charlieu.livejournal.com]

Look at the standards of human rights in China. They don't care about their own people, let alone North Koreans.

Look at the workers in China who make Apple products. They're not complaining to the government, because their pleas will fall on deaf ears. At least sympathizers in the US might put pressure on American companies to provide a better environment so they don't get bad press.

[akaich0u.livejournal.com]

Going to quote this comment from the article because it's spot-on:

The intended destination of the North Korean defectors have always been South Korea. They never want to stay in China for prolonged period, so the "economic migrants" pretext is pure bogus. Since the defectors cannot possibly go directly to South Korea, their plan is to sneak once again to another country, usually Mongolia, to procure refuge status, then apply for entering South Korea legally. Since South Korea had already accepted the 30 people in this case, the decision by the Chinese to send them back to North Korea is nothing but pure evil.

Maybe in CCP leader's mind, their despicable decision to send those defectors to death is the "fair solution" to the problem. The same kind of fairness they are working so hard to achieve for the Syrians, to help their killer friends, totally oblivious of the agony of the people.

This is absolutely senseless and vile. Then again little else could describe a monstrosity like the PRC 'leadership'. Glad my university said no to their whack ass "Confucius Institute" proposal again.