Help Sought for 7 N. Korea Refugees

In the aftermath of China’s deportation of seven North Korean defectors to Pyongyang--in defiance of a United Nations plea--the International Commission to Help North Korean Refugees brought its campaign on Thursday to Los Angeles, which has the largest concentration of Koreans outside Asia.

“To return the seven North Koreans, deemed as refugees by the U.N. high commissioner for refugees, to face possible execution there is unconscionable,” said Sang-Chul Kim, secretary-general of the commission and former mayor of Seoul. “We have come to Los Angeles to seek your help in saving their lives through the Korean American community and the larger American society and the news media.”

Kim and other representatives of the international group, co-chaired by Nobel Prize winner Mairead Corrigan-Maguire of Northern Ireland, urged local leaders to help mobilize international public opinion to protect not only the seven, but also about 100,000 to 300,000 North Koreans who now live in China after fleeing their homeland.

South Korean officials say the repatriated North Koreans, the youngest of whom is 13, entered China in mid-November in search of food. Then, crossing China’s border with Russia, they were caught by Russian guards. They hoped Russian authorities would send them to South Korea, but Russia sent them back to China on Dec. 30. Rejecting pleas from both U.N. and South Korean officials, the Chinese government sent them back to North Korea last week.

The seven are identified as Ho Yong-Il, 30, and his wife, Bang Young-Il, 26; Chang Ho-Woon, 24; Kim Kwang-Ho, 23; Lee Dong-Myung, 22; Kim Un-Chul, 20; and Kim Sung-Il, 13.

United Nations officials have accused China of violating the 1951 Refugee Convention, which bans the forcible return of refugees to areas where they could face danger or persecution. Beijing and Moscow are signatories to that convention.

The refugees have told South Korean reporters on camera that they face certain torture and death if returned to North Korea.

More than six years of severe food shortages have caused devastating malnutrition in North Korea. As many as 3 million people have died prematurely. A 1998 study by international aid organizations reported that 62% of children under 7 suffer from stunted growth, meaning a generation of North Koreans are likely to be mentally and physically impaired because of long-term malnutrition.

The number of North Koreans fleeing their destitute country has increased markedly in recent years. About 400 North Koreans have defected to South Korea in the past five years, including 147 in 1999.

Hyong-Sik Koh, a Korean American lawyer who is organizing a Monday protest in front of the Chinese Consulate here, said he is surprised that so little attention has been given to the case in the U.S. news media.

“Even though the first news of the capture of the seven North Korean refugees [was] reported by the Russian news media in early December, the world did not pay attention to their plight,” Koh said.

But their deportation has caused much indignation in South Korea, he said, because television viewers have come “to see their faces, know their desires and hopes.”

Unlike other refugees, the seven asked to be sent to South Korea, which welcomes North Koreans.

The commission, which has offices in Seoul, Paris and Washington, last month submitted a petition containing 3 million signatures to the U.N. refugee agency in Geneva, asking it to declare all the North Koreans who now live in northeastern China refugees. Its goal is to gather 10 million signatures around the world.

In the petition, the commission offered to financially support North Korean refugees who now live in China. Affiliated with the Christian Council of Korea, the commission has a constituency of 10 million in South Korea alone, Kim said.

The Rev. Sang-Koo Kim, pastor of Dongshin Presbyterian Church in Fullerton, said he has seen much support for the movement in the Los Angeles area. The local group has gathered 20,000 signatures.

“China has to be held accountable for what it did,” the pastor said. It is reprehensible that China would deport them, he said, when the U.N. agency even said it would resettle them in a third country.

But despite the refugee agency’s appeal, Russia deported the seven. The U.N. agency then appealed to Chinese authorities not to repatriate them. But on Jan. 11, the Chinese foreign ministry told the refugee agency that they had been sent to North Korea.

The Chinese government has said that the seven are economic migrants, not refugees.

Koh said Monday’s demonstration “will have a real impact on the lives of the seven refugees as well as 300,000 refugees in China.”