SEOUL: Human rights monitors and North Korean defector groups voiced anger and concern yesterday over the forced repatriation to Pyongyang of nine young refugees captured in Laos.
The case has aroused strong public feeling in South Korea. Some have accused the foreign ministry, which has declined to comment, of failing in its duty to protect the refugees once they got to Laos.
Most North Korean refugees begin their escape by crossing into China and then try to make it to third countries, often in Southeast Asia, where they seek permission to resettle in South Korea. If they are caught and returned to the North they can face severe punishment.
The nine arrested in Laos around three weeks ago were returned to China on Monday and then flown back to Pyongyang the next day.
Laos had been seen as a relatively safe and popular transit point, and its decision to return the refugees, aged between 15 and 23, prompted concerns.
“Laos and China demonstrated their disregard for human rights by allowing the North Korean government to forcibly return these nine people without fulfilling their obligations to allow refugee status determination,” said Phil Robertson, Deputy Asia Director for Human Rights Watch.
“These three governments will share the blame if further harm comes to these people,” he said.
In South Korea, the foreign ministry came under fire after it emerged that its embassy in Vientiane had been aware of the refugees’ arrest but had been unable to prevent their return to China.
“The South Korean embassy in Laos should be held accountable for their tragic journey home,” the JoongAng Daily said. “It seems the embassy simply watched them be repatriated.”
The Seoul-based North Korea Refugees Human Rights Association was equally scathing in its assessment. “This happened because of the South Korean foreign ministry’s lack of care for North Korean refugees,” association President Kim Yong-Hwa said.
In a regular press briefing, South Korean foreign ministry spokesman Cho Tai-Young suggested Seoul was reluctant to comment for fear of worsening the situation for the refugees.
“We’re not trying to cover things up. We are doing this because the safety of these people is our top priority,” he said.
In Geneva, a UN human rights investigator voiced concern over the defectors, some of them children.
Chinese authorities are obliged under international law not to return them to North Korea, where they could face persecution and even death, said Marzuki Darusman, UN Special Rapporteur on the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.
Agencies
