Citizens Worldwide Mail Protests

This coming winter, the number of starving North Korean refugees escaping into China is expected to increase, particularly in light of the major flooding in North Korea.

Meanwhile, the Chinese government continues to hunt down and repatriate North Korean refugees, while also arresting humanitarian aid workers. We must persist in our protests against Chinese government actions in order to save the starving North Korean refugees.

December 2 has been set as a day for simultaneous worldwide protest. Here in Japan, LFNKR and other groups involved in the rescue of North Korean refugees will stage a protest in front of the Chinese Embassy in this country.

Read more about this protest day

You can join us by sending protest email to the Chinese embassy in your country.

Here is a list of embassy addresses.

And below is a sample letter you can use as a guideline when writing your own letter.

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Dear President Hu Jintao,

Please immediately stop arresting and repatriating North Korean refugees.

On Dec. 2, many citizens’ groups in Europe, the USA, South Korea, and Japan are simultaneously doing joint protests in front of Chinese embassies in their countries. The purpose that we share, which surpasses race, religion, and ideology, is to help the lives and human rights of the people seeking to escape from starvation and oppression in North Korea.

It is widely known that yearly tens of thousands of North Korean defectors have escaped into China for more than a decade. The Chinese government, however, has ignored the voices of the international community urging your government to immediately stop repatriating North Korean refugees and to cease arresting the aid workers who try to help them.

It is also widely known that a staggering number of North Korean women are victims of human trafficking in China and that even when they marry Chinese men and bear children, most of them are still arrested and sent back to North Korea. The children born of these marriages often remain without nationality and are therefore denied an education. Your government continues mercilessly depriving those innocent children of their mothers and of their basic human rights.

These are not only inhumane acts, they violate the Refugees Convention to which your country is signatory. This fact seriously dishonors China in the international community.

I urge the Chinese government to:

1. immediately stop arresting, detaining or repatriating North Korean refugees and duly to protect them in your country under the supervision of URHCR or other related international organization, and to assure them safe passage to third countries if they wish to leave.

2. immediately free the currently detained North Korean refugees and humanitarian aid workers, and

3. grant Chinese nationality to North Korean defectors who marry Chinese citizens as well as to their children, and allow them to settle in China.

(Your name)