50 N. Korean orphans defected to China in late Feb.: lawmaker

Published : Mar 8, 2012 - 13:23 Updated : Mar 9, 2012 - 09:57

A opposition lawmaker revealed Thursday that a group of 50 North Korean orphans defected from their impoverished homeland late last month, while it is not known whether they have been caught by Chinese authorities.

Rep. Park Sun-young of the conservative minor Liberty Forward Party said 50 children fled from an orphanage in the northern Yanggang Province in late February, adding she has been holding the information acquired from sources in China due to their safety.

“Fortunately, I haven’t heard that they were caught (by Chinese authorities),” Park told Yonhap by phone.

Park, an avid North Korea rights advocate, said some 30 children fled the same orphanage shortly after North Korea’s previous leader Kim Jong-il died of a sudden heart disease on Dec. 17 last year.

Among the defectors, Park noted, 20 were caught near the border and severely beaten by North Korean authorities, while the rest of them have not yet returned to the North.

The 56-year-old also claimed that an additional 14 North Koreans were reportedly arrested in China, raising the total number of defectors facing repatriation to their homeland to at least 48.

The journalist-turned-lawmaker, who collapsed last week after 11 days of a hunger strike in front of the Chinese embassy, denounced liberal parties’ inaction for the human rights issues in the communist state.

“Although (the liberal parties) always talk about human rights, they are showing an anachronistic attitude by keeping silent over rights of North Korean defectors,” said Park who is now under treatment in a Seoul hospital for dehydration and malnutrition.

“Keeping silence over North Korean defectors’ rights is not so much different from inhumane actions such as torturing and killing (them).”

Tens of thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands, of North Koreans are believed to be living in hiding in China after fleeing their communist homeland, hoping to settle in South Korea. China regards them as economic migrants, not as refugees, and repatriates them when caught. (Yonhap News)

<한글 기사>

박선영 “北 양강도 혜산시 고아 50명 집단탈북”

‘탈북자 강제북송 저지 침묵’ 민주통합ㆍ통합진보 비판

자유선진당 박선영 의원은 8일 “북한 양강도 혜산(惠山)시 고아원 아이들 50명이 지난달 29일께 집단 탈북했다”고 밝혔다.

박 의원은 이날 연합뉴스와의 통화에서 이같이 말한 뒤 “다행히도 이들이 붙잡혔다는 소식은 듣지 못했다”고 설명했다.

박 의원은 이어 “김정일 국방위원장 사망 직후인 지난해 12월에도 같은 고아원에서 30여명의 아이들이 집단적으로 탈북한 적이 있다”며 “이 중 20명은 국경에서 붙잡혀 엄청나게 매를 맞았고, 10명은 돌아오지 않았다”고 말했다.

박 의원은 또 “최근 14명의 탈북자가 붙잡혀 북송 위기에 처한 탈북자는 최소 48명에 달한다”며 “25명은 중국 선양(瀋陽)에 있는 구류소에, 10명은 안산(鞍山) 국경수비대에, 나머지 13명은 바이산(白山) 국경수비대에 억류돼 있다”고 덧붙였다.

그는 “중국에 억류된 탈북자 가운데 한 남성은 자살을 시도했고, 산모와 1개월 된 아이는 건강이 악화돼 생명이 위태로운 것으로 알고 있다”며 “특히 북한에서 탈북자는 3대를 멸족하는 지시가 하달된 이후 탈북자 수가 2배로 늘었다”고 말했다.

박 의원은 ‘탈북자 강제북송 저지 운동’에 소극적인 민주통합당과 통합진보당에 대해 “입만 벌리면 ‘인권’을 이야기하면서 탈북자 인권에는 침묵하는 시대착오적인 행태를 보이고 있다”며 “탈북자의 인권에 침묵하는 것은, 탈북자를 죽이고 고문하는 반인륜적인 행태와 다르지 않다”고 비판했다.