Editor’s Introduction:Over the last decade China has been the destination for thousands of North Korean defectors. The number of defectors has steadily increased annually since 2005: 1,383 in 2005; 2,018 in 2006; 2,544 in 2007; 2,809 in 2008; 2,927 in 2009; 2,379 in 2010; and 2,737 in 2011, according to South Korea’s Unification Ministry. As North Korea’s only benefactor, China treats defectors as illegal economic migrants, not refugees, and returns them to the North, where they face harsh punishments, even execution. This month, for the first time joint Chinese-North Korean security teams were assembled and captured over two-dozen North Koreans in China. Nine have been repatriated and the fate of the rest hangs in the balance as Seoul wages a diplomatic battle to pressure Beijing to release them into South Korean custody.
February 14:
Four armed North Korean soldiers deserted with their weapons and fled to China where they robbed and killed a Chinese family of four. After the murders, which occurred on February 9, North Korea sent 300 security agents into China to capture the runaway soldiers and while there is no report of their capture, the agents did round up over two dozen North Korean defectors, the Korea Herald reports. North Korean soldiers endure a 10-year mandatory service period, poor working conditions and regular food shortages, which have been particularly severe in military units near China’s border. On November 20 a similar incident occurred in which eight armed North Korean soldiers defected to China. Two of them were shot dead, presumably by North Korean security services, while six fled into China and were hunted by scores of North Korean public security agents, reports Chosun Ilbo, South Korea’s largest newspaper by circulation.
February 15:
China has secured a 50-year lease in North Korea’s Rason special economic zone (SEZ) and rights to build three new piers, an airfield, a thermal power plant and a 55-km railway track between the SEZ and Tumen, Jilin. Late last year China agreed to provide $3 billion to build infrastructure in the Rason SEZ. In 2008, to reduce the logistics costs of Chinese companies doing business in North Korea, China secured the right to use a pier in Rajin port, located inside Rason near the border with China and Russia (important as Russia has no ports in the Sea of Japan). In 1991 Pyongyang designated Rason as a SEZ with the intention of developing it into a regional transportation hub, although no significant progress has yet been made, the Korea Times reports.
February 22:
In a change from its “quiet diplomacy” strategy, South Korean President Lee Myung- bak has publicly urged China not to return North Korean defectors to Pyongyang, reports the Korea Times. “If they are not criminals, it’s fair for China to deal with the defector issue based on international norms,” Lee said. To increase pressure, South Korea plans to bring the defector issue before a meeting of the United Nations Human Rights Council in Switzerland for the first time. Beijing is resisting and claims the topic cannot be discussed at the UN because the North Koreans are not refugees, but criminals who illegally crossed the border.
February 24:
The South Korean National Assembly’s committee on foreign affairs and unification has adopted a resolution demanding China stop repatriating North Korean defectors against their will. The resolution, which was signed by 29 lawmakers, condemns Beijing’s forced repatriation of defectors and calls on China to follow the international law on refugees when handling North Koreans. According to Yonhap news agency, Representative Park Sun-young, who has staged a hunger strike for several days in front of the China’s Embassy in Seoul, appealed to fellow lawmakers to approve the resolution to pressure China.
February 25:
North Korea has sent 29 high-ranking security agents to China to track down North Korean defectors. During the operation, which will end on March 15, the agents will work with Chinese public security officials to monitor six cities along the route defectors regularly use to escape to South Korea: Yanji, Dunhua; Changchun, Jilin; Shenyang, Liaoning; Beijing; and Kunming, Yunnan. Most of the joint Chinese-North Korean teams are stationed at train stations and bus terminals, while some North Korean agents are disguised as defectors to infiltrate the community. This is the first time Pyongyang has openly dispatched agents to China, South Korea’s Donga Ilbo reports.
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