Defector-lawmakers call out China for deporting North Korean escapees

Two defector-turned-lawmakers in South Korea on Tuesday launched a series of efforts to condemn China over the recent deportation of escapees from North Korea, and to prevent a repetition.

Ruling People Power Party Rep. Ji Seong-ho said he raised the issue of human rights violations by China over his meeting with Julie Turner, the US special envoy for North Korean human rights who is visiting Seoul for the first time since her appointment in July.

Ji told The Korea Herald that over the hourlong closed-door meeting with the US envoy, the two spoke about possible joint actions to stop a future repatriation of North Korean defectors by China and other violations that need urgent addressing.

Last month, the People Power Party pushed to pass the resolution calling on Beijing to refrain from repatriating North Korean escapees, some 2,600 of whom were estimated to have been detained in China over the COVID-19 travel ban.

After the border restrictions were lifted with the closing of the Asian Games in Hangzhou, the majority of them -- if not all -- are believed to have been returned to North Korea, according to South Korean authorities.

Ji, who entered the Assembly in 2020 as a proportional representative, attended the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China summit held in Czech Republic’s Prague last month as South Korea’s sole delegate and delivered a keynote speech dissuading Beijing from returning North Koreans.

In a meeting with Minister of Unification Kim Yung-ho, Turner was quoted by the ministry as saying she would “work closely with the ministry to hold perpetrators of human rights abuses in North Korea accountable.”

The US envoy met with her South Korean counterpart, Lee Shin-hwa, and Minister of Foreign Affairs Park Jin on Monday.

Rep. Tae Yong-ho, another former defector with the ruling party, said in a release on Tuesday he sought cooperation from US authorities on ways to address China’s forcible repatriation of North Korean defectors.

He said that it was “difficult” for Seoul to put brakes on Beijing's deportations of North Koreans without combining efforts with the US.

“At the very least, we must try to stop North Koreans who are still in China from being repatriated, and ensure their safety,” he said.