China Arrests 5 N.K. Refugees; Protest in Seoul This Friday

I’ve been receiving e-mails from a number of NGO’s about this incident, although I haven’t seen published reports about it. I’ll reprint the letter from the North Korean Freedom Coalition in full below. The protest will take place this Friday, March 14, at 10 a.m., in front of the Chinese Embassy in Seoul, near Exit No. 3 of Gyeongbokgung Station, subway Line No. 3. The group organizing the protest is called Christian Assembly. I haven’t heard of this group previously, but the message sent to me came from Norbert Vollertsen, whom I think we’ve all heard of.

Dear Mr. President:

We are writing with an urgent request that your country not repatriate to North Korea the four North Korean refugees arrested on March 5, 2008, by the Chinese authorities and now being held in Shenyang Border Patrol Detention Center. The four include three women and one man identified as follows: Hahn Chang Kuk (male, aged 30), Lee Jong-Sun (female), Lee Kung-Shin (female, 30) and Lee Jong-Shin (female, 33).

As you now, there have been several recent incidents reported by the media of public executions by the North Korean authorities for North Koreans that were sent back to North Korea by South Korea and China. We believe that these four refugees will be executed if they are sent back to North Korea by the Chinese border patrol.

As we have stated in previous letters to you, we understand and respect China’s concerns about its borders with the influx of refugees from North Korea. We want to work with China to resolve this issue humanely working under international law and with respect for China and its border integrity.

We beg you to consider that these four refugees will be executed if returned by China to North Korea. They most certainly meet the conditions under the 1951 U.N. Convention on Refugees and its 1967 Protocol, which oblige China not to repatriate them.

We thank you in advance for considering our request and hope that you will protect these four individuals, whose lives are in your hands.

Sincerely,

Suzanne Scholte Sin U Nam Rabbi Abraham Cooper Pastor Heemoon Lee
Chairman Vice Chairman Vice Chairman Vice Chairman

Ann Buwalda Mariam Bell Sue Yoon Logan
Treasurer Legislative Chair Administrator

As you’re weighing whether you can participate, just remember the shocking new turn that North Korea’s policy toward refugees have taken recently. If these people are sent back, you know what will happen to them:

Or they’ll be shot without the formality of a “trial,” just like these people, and these. China knows this, of course. It won’t care unless we attach a monetary price to its behavior.

With the Chinese starting to squirm under the pressure they’re getting over Darfur, the next few months will be critical to keeping China’s abhorrent behavior in the public eye. Personally, I hate going to demonstrations, but I don’t go to them to entertain myself.