Seoul makes rare protest to China over repatriation of North Korean defectors
- The South Korean unification ministry said it believes that recent reports that defectors had been repatriated were true
- Beijing has denied the reports and Seoul is usually reluctant to air its concerns about the issue in public
China has always denied doing this, but Koo Byoung-sam, a spokesman for the South Korean ministry of unification, told a press briefing on Friday that reports several North Koreans had been repatriated from northeastern China appeared to be true.
He said the South Korean government had raised its concerns with Beijing.
“Our position is that under no circumstances should North Korean defectors be forcibly repatriated to North Korea against their free will. [It] is against the international norm of prohibiting forced repatriation,” said Koo.
“Our government regrets this situation, sternly raised this issue with China, and emphasised our position.”
The previous day, Wang Wenbin, a spokesman for the Chinese foreign ministry, had denied the reports, saying Beijing had always handled the issue according to law and there are no “so-called defectors”.
“China has always maintained a responsible attitude, and dealt with them properly,” said Wang. “The government will continue to make diplomatic efforts to protect North Korean defectors.”
It is rare for Seoul to publicly raise the issue of North Korean defectors in China. Reports on the issue are usually very hard to verify and protests risk upsetting Beijing.
On Friday, Koo added that South Korea has been urging China to cooperate through diplomatic channels.
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The unification ministry, however, said it cannot confirm how many North Koreans had been repatriated, and whether the group included any defectors, criminals or patients.
On Wednesday, Justice For North Korea, a South Korean human rights group, and other local media claimed that around hundreds of North Korean defectors detained in the Chinese provinces of Jilin and Liaoning had been deported on Monday night via the border cities of Dandong and Hunchun.
Beijing has never confirmed information about North Korean defectors within its territory.
Elizabeth Salmon, the UN special rapporteur for North Korean human rights, has estimated that more than 2,000 North Korean defectors had been arrested during the Covid-19 pandemic and are currently detained in China.
Relations between South Korea and China have soured in recent years, with Seoul strengthening its military ties with the United States to counter the nuclear and missile threat from the North.
But the two sides have recently been seeking to improve ties through high-level talks.
Chung Jae-ho, South Korean ambassador to China, told a committee of lawmakers on Friday that Han had addressed the repatriation of North Korean defectors during the meeting with Xi. He added that Beijing did not confirm any information on the matter following a request from the embassy for details.
