Forced Repatriation of North Korean Residents

 

Amnesty International Korea Holds Press Conference on March 12... Delivers Petition Containing Over 2,700 Signatures to the Chinese Embassy in Korea. This article appeared in the Korean Catholic Times.

The press conference was attended by religious figures and human rights activists. Together, they denounced the inhumane nature of the forced repatriation of North Korean residents.

Notably, the son of a woman currently detained in a Chinese facility and facing the imminent threat of forced repatriation, attended the press conference alongside his representative. They made an earnest appeal to the South Korean government, the religious community, and civil society to intervene and prevent the forced repatriation.

The son stated, "My mother, who is currently in China, endured immense hardships to ensure I could make it to Korea; however, now..." "She is currently detained in a Chinese detention center, in a situation where she cannot send or receive any communication," he said, choking back tears. "It breaks my heart to think of my mother suffering in such cold conditions. If she is forcibly repatriated to North Korea, she will be sent to a political prison camp, making it nearly impossible for her to survive. I want to protect her with the help of many people."

If North Korean residents who have escaped their country and are currently staying in China are forcibly repatriated, they face severe human rights violations, including torture, forced labor, deliberate starvation, and enforced disappearance. Amnesty International has pointed out that the Chinese government’s forcible repatriation of North Korean residents constitutes a violation of the "principle of non-refoulement"—a peremptory norm of international law. Officials from Amnesty International, along with others, delivered a petition containing the signatures of approximately 2,700 citizens opposed to the forcible repatriation of North Koreans to the Chinese Embassy in South Korea.

"The forcible repatriation of North Koreans must be approached from a humanitarian perspective—one that recognizes the pain of families being torn apart, and insists that such suffering must not be repeated a second or third time—rather than merely as a matter of political opinion or human rights issues."