Amid surge in elite defections, China raises bounties on North Korean refugees

The State Department, which refuses to re-designate North Korea as a state sponsor of terrorism despite all of the recent and well-documented cases of Pyongyang sending its agents to kidnap and kill refugees, emigres, and activists — and amid reports that it is sending more hit-men now — is calling on governments around the world to protect North Korean refugees. That’s good, I suppose.

“We urge all countries to cooperate in the protection of North Korean refugees and asylum seekers within their territories,” State Department spokeswoman Katina Adams told Yonhap News Agency. “The United States remains deeply concerned about the human rights situation in North Korea and the treatment of North Korean refugees and asylum seekers. She, however, declined comment on specifics of the North Korean diplomat’s defection.

“We continue to work with other countries and international organizations, including the U.N. Human Rights Council and U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), to protect North Korean refugees and find durable solutions for them,” Adams said. [Yonhap]

We’ve seen recently that more privileged North Koreans are escaping in greater numbers, and good for them. But along the border between China and North Korea — which since the 1990s has been the last resort of North Korea’s poorest and hungriest people — Chinese authorities have raised the payment of bounties to catch and return North Korean refugees to Kim Jong-un’s gulag.

“More defectors are being repatriated by [Chinese] public security agents after their journey across the Tumen River into Chinese territory,” a source from North Hamgyong Province told Daily NK on Monday. “Recently, Chinese border patrol units and public security officials have been carrying out joint patrols, tighter inspections, and searches, drastically reducing the potential for successful defection.”

An increased incidence in reporting by local residents also plays a significant role, he added. Defectors are picked up by law enforcement in the border region before they manage to make it further afield after crossing the river, the source explained, citing a case from early August, when two women in their 30s crossed the Tumen River from Musan County and were picked up by Chinese public security forces on a tip from local residents. The women were immediately handed over to North Korean State Security Department officials.

This would be understandable if we were talking about armed North Korean soldiers, who have been crossing the border to do home-invasion robberies in Chinese border towns recently. Instead, China is rounding up desperately poor women who may be trying to escape starvation or earn enough money to feed their children.

Local Chinese authorities have for some time been relatively wont to let defector-related matters slide, according to the source. “But recently,” she added, “local governments are taking a harsher stance, perhaps because of pressure from the central government on account of perceived warmer ties with Pyongyang.”

According to multiple sources in China close to North Korean affairs, Chinese public announcements on “enhanced border security measures” are ubiquitous in border regions, promising up to 1,000 RMB for those who report illegal border crossings, residence, and employment of North Koreans. Those who personally capture and hand over North Koreans to the Chinese authorities stand to receive 2,000 RMB for their efforts.

They have also outlined stronger punishments for local residents who enter verbal agreements with North Koreans to help them cross the river or smuggle goods, threatening fines of up to 3,000 RMB for transgressors. Moreover, Chinese border guards have been ordered to shoot North Korean defectors caught illegally entering the country if they resist arrest. [Daily NK]

President Obama should raise these bounties in particular, and China’s refugee policy in general, when he meets with Xi Jinping this week. He should also ask Xi to let 18-year-old mathematics student Ri Jong-yol leave the South Korean consulate in Hong Kong for a flight to Seoul. The same goes for the reported defection of a North Korean general (and possibly, several diplomats) in China.

In fact, the two men should have plenty to talk about. On several fronts, after promising to cooperate with efforts to disarm North Korea, China has turned back in the direction of enabling Kim Jong-un’s worst behavior. 

If, as I expect, direct appeals to Xi’s tender mercies fail, other appropriate responses must include a sustained effort to find and block North Korean assets, starting with those held by small Chinese banks and shadow banks, and moving steadily upward in the financial ecosystem. In doing so, Treasury should prioritize identifying the assets of the North Korean security agencies that are stepping up their censorship and surveillance to seal North Korea’s borders, and to prevent so-called “chain defections.”

When China allowed the Ningpo 12 to escape to South Korea, some activists took an optimistic view that China was finally moderating its cruel policies toward North Korean refugees. It was never clear to me that this represented a change in Beijing’s policy, but it is clear that Beijing’s North Korea policy has recently taken a great step backward.

How cynical, brutal, and flagrantly unlawful it would be if China were, in fact, punishing North Korean men, women, and children — who are guilty of no crime but wanting to live — over its objections to South Korean missile defense.

~   ~   ~

Update: Yonhap has more reporting on North Korea’s renewed crackdown along its border with China.