Like yellow dust from the continent overspread the sky hazily last week, the news that China is tightening its border control and launching a bigger campaign to find, arrest and repatriate North Korean defectors in the wake of the Spanish Embassy incident discourages us. On March 18, 25 North Korean defectors including six families and two orphaned children dramatic arrived at Seoul via the Philippines just four days after they pushed their way into Spanish Embassy in Beijing seeking for asylum. It is the second such case of using foreign organization in China, following the first in last June, when the Chang Gil-soo family entered the office of UN High Commissioner for Refugee (UNHCR) in Beijing.
Inspired by case, more and more groups of North Koreans who demand to come to the South are likely to storm into the office of international organizations and Foreign Embassies to effectively escape China with the support of international NGOs and missionary groups. Chines law-enforcement authorities cracks down to search North Koreans hiding around Korean churches and towns motivated by a series of escape.
This event succeeds to raise the international concerns about North Korean defectors in China. But it leads to aggravate the suffering of another millions of defectors who are at extreme risky of being sent back to North Korea. And the public activities of defector-related private organizations who help and harbor defectors. The Chinese authorities said that this case should not set a precedent for any other similar incidents and they will not cooperate with South Korea unless these matters are dealt with silently. China, the "blood ally" of North Korea, does not grant a refugee status to the defectors, for they are "illegal entrants due to economic plight".
This case suggests that the Korean government overhaul its defector policies. The government announced that it would accept all the North Korean defectors who want to came to Seoul with humanitarian and brotherly love. However, we need to exert more efforts on this issue. Most North Korean defectors hiding from the Chinese security agents, are seeking their ways to come to the South via the third country in South Asia and they want to contact with secret brokers as well. Compared to the previous year, lots of defectors try to seek asylum on individual basis without organized networks and outside assistance. Their numbers are estimated at anywhere between 150,000 and 300,000 in China.
Seoul should continuously consult with Beijing to make sure that they are not to repatriated to North Korea. It should also persuade Chinese authorities to offer an official way to enable defectors come to Seoul. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade should urge the world to put diplomatic pressure on China to define defectors as refugees and to grant them asylum by calling for the international authorities through the media. Increasing defectors, the Ministry of Reunification need to come up with a more fundamental solution rather than merely increasing the budget and facilities. The possibility future occurrences of similar cases are given and we prepare specific measures to cope with it.
China, which shares a border with North Korea, tries to avoid souring diplomatic relations with the two Koreas. That's why they are reluctant to make public the defectors stories. China agrees to send defectors to the Philippines to evade the risk of becoming the target of international criticism over the human right issues in case returning them to the North. As the host country of 2008 Olympic games and a new WTO member, China cares a lot for issues concerning human rights. Every year, China repatriates hundreds of defectors to the North. They very conscious of the diplomatic relation with North. It's a serious violation of human rights. The only thing that awaits for the repatriated defectors is death. Recently, China has became more influential both economically and politically, therefore it should take responsibility in a humanitarian way as well. We hope that China serious reconsiders the defectors policies and starts to negotiate with both the Koreas.