Open Letter to Xi Jinping
Dear Mr. President:
We call on the Chinese government to stop the forced repatriation of North Korean defectors
On October 9th, the Chinese government forcibly repatriated approximately 600 North Korean defectors who had been arrested and detained during the coronavirus period.
North Korea had refused to accept defectors repatriated from China due to coronavirus prevention measures, but after declaring victory over the coronavirus, it reopened the border between North Korea and China.
There were fears that the repatriation of North Korean defectors who had been arrested and detained by Chinese authorities for the past three years might be resumed after the Hangzhou Asian Games, avoiding international scrutiny.
Foreseeing the possibility that the forced repatriation of arrested and detained North Korean defectors would be restarted, the director-general of South Korean Ministry of Unification announced that the South Korean government would accept all North Korean defectors who wish to come to South Korea.
The Director-General dispatched Prime Minister Han Deok-soo to the opening ceremony of the Asian Games in Hangzhou, who personally urged President Xi Jinping not to repatriate North Korean defectors. However, the Chinese government ignored the request and carried out forced repatriation.
Although the Chinese government acceded to the Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees on September 24, 1982, it has consistently refused to recognize North Korean defectors as refugees, but instead viewed them as economic illegal immigrants and criminal fugitives, and have been forcibly returning them to North Korea.
The Chinese government also ratified the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. The torture and the like inflicted on the defectors by the North Korean government were also revealed in the report submitted by the UN Commission of Inquiry (COI) on Human Rights Violations in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea to the UN Human Rights Committee in 2014.
Therefore, the forced repatriation by the Chinese government clearly violates Article 3, Paragraph 1 of the Convention against Torture: “No State Party shall expel, extradite or hand over any individual to a country where there are substantial grounds to believe that he or she is in danger of being subjected to torture.” We at LFNKR strongly call on the Chinese government to immediately stop the forced repatriation of North Korean defectors.
Sincerely,
Kato Hiroshi, Executive Director
Life Funds for North Korean Refugees (LFNKR)