China Sends 62 NK Refugees to Certain Death

It’s probably too late to save these people. Just remember them when China talks about its interest in the “stability of the region” and the sanctity of its territory. China has forfeited its moral case for those interests by consigning the North Korean people to a brutal fate. Perhaps they’ll realize this when some North Koreans turn to violence against the Chinese authorities, a result that’s probably inevitable now. China has brought that result on itself by depriving these refugees of their rights under international law, thereby leaving them no peaceful options.

This episode is also a vivid illustration of the fecklessness of South Korea’s “quiet diplomacy.” Why did it matter so little? Seoul has no pull with China on the issues that matter much because it squandered its influence on issues that matter much less: the SOFA, the “East Sea,” Yasukuni, Koguryo, and some little uninhabited island that makes period appearances on postage stamps.

Seoul’s amateurish diplomacy, emotion-driven policies, and skewed priorities left Seoul diplomatically isolated and without any options other than the fig leaf of “quiet diplomacy.” Roh’s incompetence has now cost another 62 lives. Had Seoul worked with the United States and Japan to help North Korean refugees, all three countries could have exerted far more pressure on China to treat them refugees humanely and on the United Nations High Commission for Refugees to do its job. Instead, the United States Congress and the U.K. Foreign Ministry stand virtually alone in showing any real concern about these people.