Human rights activists have urged Beijing to stop repatriating North Korean refugees over fears that more than 1,000 people detained in China could be tortured by Kim Jong Un’s security officials.
At least 1,170 North Koreans are detained in China, including 450 men in a prison in Changchun, a city in north-eastern Jilin province, according to Human Rights Watch.
The calls came amid concerns about a sharp fall in the number of North Korean defectors who have successfully escaped, navigating dangerous journeys through China to South Korea.
Just two defectors arrived in South Korea in the second quarter of the year, a record low and following 229 in all of 2020, according to Seoul’s Ministry of Unification. That is down from more than 1,000 in 2019 and close to 3,000 in 2009.
The criticism of Beijing also followed a report by Radio Free Asia that China repatriated about 50 North Koreans this month. The report has not been independently confirmed by the Financial Times.
The event would have probably marked the first case of mass forced returns since January 2020, when North Korean authorities instituted sweeping crackdowns on trade and travel in response to the risk of Covid-19 transmission from China.
“China is obligated not to force back anyone who would be at risk of persecution or torture upon return,†said Lina Yoon, a researcher at Human Rights Watch, noting that Beijing was a party to UN conventions to protect refugees and prevent torture.
“Since anyone who returns to North Korea after fleeing will likely be tortured or otherwise mistreated, all have a claim for refugee status in whichever country they reach,†she said.
The long-term decline in the number of escapers reflects harsher security procedures imposed in the borderlands of North Korea and China following the rise to power of Kim Jong Un and Xi Jinping.
Beijing has long been wary of the risks of destabilisation in North Korea, which could cause a flood of refugees across its 1,352km border with the nuclear-armed state.
Estimates of the number of North Koreans in China range upwards from 50,000. Many defectors live in China for years, some paying off debts, before they venture to south-east Asia, where they can be accepted and processed through South Korean embassies.
But experts who help defectors reach safety said Beijing’s increasingly strict controls on internal movement and the uptake of technological surveillance had created new risks.
The number of brokers willing to assist North Korean defectors has also fallen, a sign of the effectiveness of the crackdown on both sides of the border.
Pyongyang has not reported a single coronavirus infection since the start of the pandemic. North Korean observers remain uncertain about the likelihood of any near-term vaccination programme despite mounting signs of a severe economic downturn and worsening humanitarian situation in the country.
North Korea could access Oxford/AstraZeneca jabs via the Covax programme under Gavi, a UN-backed alliance, but foreign experts have not gained access to the country to assess the status of its distribution networks.
Some experts expect trade flows with China might slowly pick up over the coming months via new, highly controlled disinfection zones near Sinuiju, North Korea’s main road artery with Dandong in north-eastern China.
