EU may join pressure on China over N. Korean refugees

The European Union may join the international pressure on China to stop the repatriation of North Korean refugees at the U.N. Human Rights Council’s meeting on Thursday, a source said.

At a meeting with diplomats and East Asia experts in Germany on Wednesday, Unification Minister Yu Woo-ik requested international cooperation to protect the human rights of North Korean defectors and respect their individual choices.

“Germany and the EU shared Yu’s view that forced repatriation of North Korean refugees was not desirable. They said they would seek active cooperative measures,” said the source on the condition of anonymity.

The EU delegation to South Korea told The Korea Herald that it cannot comment on the issue because Yu is to meet with EU officials later.

“The EU intervention on the human rights council is scheduled for tomorrow. In such case, we are not in position to make any comments on this development on this stage,” the EU delegation to Korea said.

The U.S. will also turn up the heat on China to recognize North Korean defectors as refugees, not as economic migrants, and stop sending them back home, at the U.N. panel’s meeting, said a local daily Chosun Ilbo quoting an unnamed source.

The deputy spokesperson of the U.S. Embassy in Seoul said he has not received any information from the State Department regarding the matter.

The U.S. congressional-executive commission on China is to hold a hearing on Monday in Washington to address the North Korean defectors held by the Chinese authorities.

Witnesses include Suzanne Scholte, chairman and founding member of the North Korea Freedom Coalition; Han Song-hwa, a North Korean refugee who had been detained in China, repatriated to North Korea and then detained in North Korea; Jo Jin-hye, another North Korean defector; and Roberta Cohen, chair of the board of directors of the Committee for Human Rights in North Korea.

“The witnesses will discuss the factors driving North Koreans to flee to China and address the legality of China’s forced repatriations of North Koreans and relevant humanitarian concerns,” the commission said.

China’s policy of forcefully sending back North Korean refugees to their homeland contradicts its obligations under the 1951 Refugees Convention and its 1967 Protocol, to which China has acceded.

Chinese media reports have begun covering the issue of North Korean defectors in earnest.

The People’s Daily Online said Beijing urged Seoul to treat the issue of North Koreans “calmly in order to sustain Beijing-Seoul ties, instead of politicizing the issue.”

Quoting China’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei, the daily online said South Korean media reports about North Korean defectors “didn’t reflect the truth or solve the problem.”

South Korea’s Foreign Minister Kim Sung-hwan is to meet with his Chinese counterpart Yang Jiechi in Seoul on Friday, and expected to urge Beijing to stop repatriations of North Koreans.

By Kim Yoon-mi

(yoonmi@heraldcorp.com)