A “large number” of North Koreans appear to have been forcibly repatriated by Chinese authorities, South Korea’s Unification Ministry said Friday, confirming the claims of several human rights groups.
“It seems true that a large number of North Korean residents have been repatriated to North Korea from China’s three northeastern provinces,” South Ministry spokesperson Koo Byoung-sam told reporters. -Korean Unification, without providing an exact figure.
Most of the tens of thousands of North Koreans who have fled repression and poverty in their country have opted to cross the border into China, where they risk arrest and deportation.
If repatriated, these North Korean fugitives face heavy sanctions in their country, even the death penalty, according to human rights defenders.
“Our government regrets this situation and has seriously raised this issue with China, while affirming our position,” continued Koo Byoung-sam.
South Korea believes “under no circumstances should North Korean defectors living abroad be forcibly repatriated to North Korea,” he continued.
On Thursday, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Wenbin’s spokesperson said there were no North Korean defectors in China.
“China has always adopted a responsible attitude towards nationals of the DPRK (Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Editor’s note) who enter China illegally for economic reasons, and continues to treat them in accordance with the principles of national law and international,” he continued during a press conference.
The South Korean ministry’s statement comes after the South Korean newspaper Chosun Ilbo reported, citing human rights groups, that nearly 600 North Koreans were repatriated from China on the night of October 9.
The NGO Human Rights Watch, for its part, declared that Beijing had “forcibly returned” more than 500 North Koreans to their country.
Elizabeth Salmon, the United Nations special rapporteur on human rights in North Korea, estimated that around 2,000 North Korean defectors are currently detained in China.
Under a bilateral border protocol dating from 1986, North Koreans are not allowed to seek asylum or resettle in China and are instead deported to their home countries, according to HRW.
“The Chinese government should allow UN authorities access to North Korean detainees and grant North Koreans refugee status or allow them to travel safely to South Korea or other countries” , declared the NGO in a press release.