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	CHINA: NGO ASKS UNHCR TO RECOGNISE NORTH KOREANS Source: Refugees Daily Date: Tuesday 14 December 1999 South Korean campaigners yesterday pressed the United Nations to recognise as refugees North Koreans who have fled to China to escape starvation, reports AP. The Commission to Help North Korean Refugees plans to present a 2.5 million-signature petition to UNHCR claiming North Koreans are being forcibly repatriated to face torture and sometimes execution. The South Korean NGO says about 100,000 North Koreans are in China’s border provinces. It also released the results of a survey of North Koreans in China, a majority of whom said they had fled because of widespread hunger. More than 70% said a family member had died from starvation. They said they were afraid of torture and beatings if returned to North Korea, and some 60% said they would commit suicide rather than return. Joanne Lee, the commission’s executive secretary, said the international community had to put pressure on China. “We want the UN High Commissioner for Refugees to intervene with the Chinese to stop repatriating defectors back to North Korea,” she said. “We want them to establish temporary facilities on the borders so people can apply for refugee status in safety.” Kyodo adds members of the group are in Geneva to deliver the petition to UNHCR chief Sadako Ogata, asking for a halt to forced repatriation, recognition of North Koreans as refugees and for a UNHCR study on the situation. [Campaigners press for U.N. to recognize North Koreans as refugees – www.ap.org; 70% of N. Korean refugees had family member starve – www.kyodo.co.jp] RETURN to TOP CHINA: ENVOY DENIES NORTH KOREAN INFLUX Source: Refugees Daily Date: Tuesday 7 December 1999 North Korea’s ambassador to China today denied reports that large numbers of hungry North Koreans had crossed into Chinese territory, reports Reuters. “There have been no illegal border crossings from our country,” said Ambassador Chu Chang-jun responding to an estimate last week by his South Korean counterpart, Kwon Byong-hyon, who said tens of thousands of refugees from famine-stricken North Korea had fled to China in the last several years. “I don’t know what he said, but I’m sure it was malicious slander against our country,” said Chu. South Korea estimates up to 30,000 North Korean refugees are in China, fleeing dire economic conditions and widespread food shortages in the communist North. Some aid groups have put the figure many times higher. Aid workers have quoted refugees accounts of harrowing escapes by North Koreans across the river border to China, where they must lie low or risk being sent back to face possible execution. China officially denies any influx of refugees from its old communist ally. [N.Korean envoy denies refugee influx to China – www.reuters.com] RETURN to TOP CHINA: SOUTH KOREA ASKS NOT TO REPATRIATE NORTH KOREANS Source: Refugees Daily Date: Thursday 3 December 1999 China has repatriated more than 5,000 North Korean refugees who had fled their famine-stricken country, the South Korean ambassador to China said today, reports AFP. “We believe they should refrain from repatriating those helpless people. That is the bottom line,” ambassador Kwon Byong-Hyon said in Beijing. “We ask them not to repatriate. Once they go back to North Korea, nobody knows what will happen to them, maybe something terrible,” Kwon said. AP adds Kwon said South Korea has been quietly lobbying China to help starving North Korean refugees, rather than to force them back. “This is a very important matter from a humanitarian point of view,” he said. The South Korean government estimates between 10,000 to 30,000 North Koreans are hiding near the border. NGOs say it could be as high as 300,000. Some have fled their repressive homeland for political reasons, but many to escape hunger. China does not recognise them as refugees and is required by treaty to return them to North Korea, a close communist ally. In South Korea, human rights groups demand that the North Koreans be treated as refugees and allowed to defect to South Korea or other countries. Rightists recently demonstrated in front of the Chinese Embassy in Seoul to protest Beijing’s handling of the North Koreans. [China repatriated more than 5,000 North Korean refugees: ambassador – www.afp.com; South Korean envoy says Seoul lobbying China to help North Korean – www.ap.org] RETURN to TOP
	CHINA: REPATRIATED NORTH KOREANS TORTURED -SURVEY Source: Refugees Daily Date: Friday 19 November 1999 Many North Koreans repatriated by Chinese authorities are subject to severe torture or even execution, said a South Korean civic group, reports the Korea Herald. About 400 of 1,383 refugees in China surveyed had been repatriated to North Korea once or more, said the report of the Commission to Help North Korean Refugees. Almost one third of the 400 deported people became physically paralysed after being tortured by North Korean authorities, it added. “In addition, another 22% were sent to labour camps in the Communist country, widely known as ‘mass death camps’ among North Koreans,” said a commission official. About 30% believed that they would be executed if deported once again, he said, citing the poll conducted between Oct. 2 and Nov. 12 in northeast China. Estimating the number of North Korean refugees hiding in China at between 100,000 and 200,000, the commission report also said that 90% of the escapees refused to go back to their homeland, with 82.4% choosing South Korea as the best place for asylum, followed by 3.1% who opted for the United States. The remaining 10% positively considered returning to the North because of concerns about family, the report said. Officials from the civic organisation, affiliated with the Korean Christian Council, are now visiting the United States to deliver the results of the poll to the UN and US congressmen to seek international attention. They also plan to have conferences in China and at UNHCR in Geneva. [Repatriated North Korean defectors undergo barbaric treatment, report says – www.koreaherald.co.kr] RETURN to TOP
	CHINA: NORTH KOREANS FACE MORE HARDSHIP Source: Refugees Daily Date: Wednesday 20 October 1999 The adversity faced by thousands of North Korean refugees hiding in China’s northeastern border area will only increase with winter’s sub-zero temperatures, reports Kyodo. But even as the weather turns colder and the governments of China and North Korea turn a blind eye to the problem, the number of refugees will increase because the Tumen River, which separates the two countries, will freeze over, making illegal entry easier. As many as 100,000 North Koreans last year chose adversity in China and the danger of detention to starvation at home. Many of the North Koreans return home after seeking temporary relief for themselves, bringing back scavenged food to their families. But many also prefer to stay in China and live in hiding. The response of Chinese living in the border area and the wider Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture appears to be generally sympathetic as most are themselves ethnic Koreans and some have relatives in North Korea. Hidden refugee shelters are run by church groups in the wilderness near the Chinese border town Tumen. [Hidden refugees escape N. Korean starvation – www.kyodo.co.jp] RETURN to TOP CHINA: SOUTH KOREA TO WELCOME NORTH KOREANS Source: Refugees Daily Date: Monday 18 October 1999 South Korea will welcome all North Korean defectors in third countries seeking political asylum in the South, Unification Minister Lim Dong-won was quoted as saying today, reports Reuters. Lim, who was speaking at a parliamentary session on Saturday, said diplomatic issues with the country or countries where the North Koreans have been hiding should be resolved first. “There are several hundred North Korean defectors who have expressed their intention to come into (South) Korea through our diplomatic missions,” a ministry spokesman quoted Lim as saying. “The government, under the principle that we accept them all, is negotiating with the countries where they are staying and is also cooperating with the UNHCR,” Lim said. He did not specify the country or countries where North Korean defectors are staying, but ministry officials said most were in China. The Korea Herald on Friday reports Seoul reacted cautiously after UNHCR confirmed on its website that there are refugees among North Korean defectors in China. Seoul says the North Koreans should be regarded as refugees as most of them escaped to avoid a harsh dictatorship and search for food. But Beijing has refused to recognise them as legal refugees reportedly because of a possible mass influx of North Koreans into China. [N.Korea says will welcome all N.Korea defectors – www.reuters.com; Seoul reacts cautiously to U.N. move on North Korean refugees in China – www.koreaherald.co.kr] UNHCR clarification to the above report: The phrase “UNHCR confirmed on its website that there are refugees among North Korean defectors in China” is misleading. Reports to this effect, most recently emanating from AP and Reuters, have indeed featured in various issues of Refugees Daily. However, as we clearly state at the top of its page, Refugees Daily does not necessarily reflect the views of UNHCR. That a story appears in Refugees Daily is therefore not necessarily to be taken as UNHCR confirmation of its accuracy. RETURN to TOP CHINA: STOP RETURNING NORTH KOREANS - NGO Source: Refugees Daily Date: Wednesday 13 October 1999 Beijing should stop repatriating North Koreans who cross the border into China to seek food, an NGO said today, reports AP. “Repatriating the defectors is an evil act,” said Kim Sang-chul, head of the Seoul-based Commission to Help North Korean Refugees. Private relief officials say up to 300,000 North Koreans are living illegally in China after fleeing their communist homeland, which is suffering food shortages. China has detained and repatriated some North Koreans under a treaty with Pyongyang, South Korean relief officials say. Kim said North Koreans should be allowed to defect to South Korea or other countries of their choice. He said his group obtained witness reports that many North Koreans are beaten, starved, tortured or even executed on return. Kim spoke during a conference of NGOs in Seoul’s Olympic Stadium. [NGO says China should stop repatriating North Korean refugees – www.ap.org] RETURN to TOP CHINA: SEOUL TALKS ABOUT NORTH KOREANS Source: Refugees Daily Date: Thursday 7 October 1999 South Korea today said up to 30,000 refugees from North Korea are in China having fled their famine-stricken communist country to avoid hunger, reports Reuters. Foreign Ministry spokesman Lee Kwang-ho quoted Foreign Minister Hong Soon-young as telling the National Assembly yesterday that 10,000 to 30,000 North Koreans were in China, far below an estimate of 300,000 given earlier by Good Friends, an NGO. It was the first time the South Korean government has officially revealed its estimate of the number of North Korean refugees in China. “We arrived at the estimate after reviewing data from the Chinese government, the United Nations High Commission for Refugees and our own research,” Lee said. He also quoted Hong as saying the ministry was attempting to start a dialogue with Chinese authorities on the issue of North Korean refugees. [Seoul says up to 30,000 N.Korea refugees in China – www.reuters.com] RETURN to TOP
	2 KOREAS FINISH DEAL TO REUNITE FAMILILES Source: The New York Times on the Web http://www.nytimes.com Date: July 1, 2000, Saturday By: Calvin Sims Red Cross officials from North and South Korea signed an agreement today to begin reuniting families separated by more than 50 years of conflict on the Korean peninsula. The accord, the first significant step toward achieving goals set at landmark ... ( Excerpt from July 1, 2000, Saturday Foreign Desk , 739 words) RETURN to TOP CHINA: MORE NORTH KOREANS NEED AID, STATUS Source: Refugees Daily Date: Tuesday 20 July 1999 A growing wave of refugees, many of them children, who have fled the worsening famine in North Korea are eking out a hand-to-mouth existence in China, reports the Dallas Morning News. They live in constant fear of being caught and returned to North Korea, where they may face beatings, internment and starvation. 32 North Koreans in hiding in China have described the desperate conditions that forced them to leave North Korea. They told of subsisting on tree bark and corn cobs, and of disintegrating families and orphans roaming as thieves. South Korean relief organisations estimate more than 200,000 North Koreans have crossed into China since the famine began four years ago. But with increasing numbers crossing in recent months, those helping the refugees say it is becoming more difficult to feed, house and hide them. International aid organisations remain out of reach because the North Koreans have not been officially designated as refugees, relief workers say.. Amnesty International has said international pressure should be applied on China to grant North Korean defectors refugee status. A spokesman for the Chinese Embassy in Washington said he was not aware of North Korean refugees in China, but that they would be treated “in accordance with international norms.” [North Korean refugees find help, hope in China – www.dallasnews.com] RETURN to TOP
	CHINA: NORTH KOREANS TELL OF EXECUTIONS Source: Refugees Daily Date: Wednesday 24 February 1999 North Korea is increasingly turning to public executions to try to curb a rampant crime wave – ranging from murder and cannibalism to smuggling and robbery – by people desperate for food, according to refugees from the starving country, reports the International Herald Tribune. North Korean refugees in China reported a countrywide pattern of summary public trials and executions, usually by shooting but occasionally by hanging. Without exception, the refugees reported they had witnessed several executions. Other refugees, ranging from children begging in marketplaces to workers roaming the Chinese countryside in search of odd jobs and handouts, say that the prisoners’ offences include theft, cannibalism and murdering children to process their flesh to look like pork. Not all criminals are executed in public, some refugees say. North Korea is widely believed to have eased up on the penalties for fleeing the country. The returnees generally are beaten by North Korean guards once they are returned but often are freed after a few weeks in custody, refugees said. [North Korean Desperation – www.iht.com] RETURN to TOP CHINA: NORTH KOREANS TELL OF GRIM FAMINE Source: Refugees Daily Date: Friday 12 February 1999 Interviews with more than 20 North Korean refugees and private aid officials during a recent four-day trip to China’s border with North Korea paint a stark picture of developments inside the isolated country where some say a famine has killed 2 million people since the mid-1990s, reports The Washington Post. Refugees described a grotesque landscape of crumbling families, homes without electricity or heat, and towns and villages where promised foreign food aid did not arrive, or was reserved for ruling party elites, whose neighbours survived on twigs, leaves, corn stalks and frogs. North Koreans have been entering China illegally since food shortages began sweeping the country in the mid-1990s, the combined result of disastrous economic policies and the collapse of the Soviet Union. Estimates of the numbers of North Koreans in northeastern China hover around 100,000. Many refugees commute between the two sides, profiting from the booming black market for food and other basic necessities. Since last month, the Chinese government, alarmed by a growing local crime rate, began expelling large numbers of Korean refugees. [Starving North Koreans Who Reach China Describe a Slowly Dying Country] RETURN to TOP CHINA: NORTH KOREAN INFLUX PLAYED DOWN Source: Refugees Daily Date: Friday 5 February 1999 China is fighting a rising tide of North Korean refugees streaming across its border to escape famine and fuel shortages, officials said yesterday, reports Reuters. But authorities played down the threat of a mass migration into China, saying the situation was well under control and had actually improved since last year. China’s Foreign Ministry said: “In recent years for a variety of reasons, there have been many cases of North Koreans crossing the border into China illegally . . . but these people cannot be considered refugees.” AFP adds Beijing has a longstanding agreement with Pyongyang to repatriate North Koreans who sneak into China, but Chinese officials have refused to provide any figures on the numbers who have fled even to the UNHCR. But The Times reports China said North Koreans who have risked death to flee their famine-hit homeland are not refugees, and indications were that the refugees would be pushed back across the border to face the possibility of death either by execution or starvation. There is a shoot-to-kill policy by North Korean guards along the border and Pyongyang treats repatriated refugees as “traitors”, according to many frightened North Koreans. The refugees said they could be executed or be sent to jail or labour camps. [China fighting tide of North Korean refugees – www.reuters.com; China conducting house to house searches for North Korean refugees – www.afp.com; China bars starving Koreans – www.the-times.co.uk] RETURN to TOP
	NORTH KOREANS: DEFECTORS? Source: Refugees Daily Date: Wednesday 20 January 1999 North Korea today accused South Korean agents aided by the United States of kidnapping a senior North Korean diplomat reported to have defected in Germany, reports AFP. Analysts said the accusation was an implicit admission that the senior economic official in the North Korean embassy in Berlin, was now in the hands of the United States. Seoul dismissed the claims as “groundless.” The North’s official news agency gave a detailed account of the alleged daylight kidnapping on January 13. South Korean sources say the missing diplomat is under US protection in Germany and is asking for US asylum. Meanwhile AFP reports South Korean intelligence authorities said two North Korean women flew into the South today, ending a harsh life as refugees probably in China. The National Intelligence Service said the two, aged 25 and 26, had stayed in a third country before being allowed into Seoul. The unnamed third country generally means China, where intelligence officials believe there are some 100,000 North Korean refugees. [N.Korea says South kidnapped its diplomat and Two North Korean women defect to South Korea – www.afp.com] RETURN to TOP NORTH KOREA: EXODUS FEARED Source: Refugees Daily Date: Monday 18 January 1999 A family of three North Koreans has defected to South Korea amid growing concern over escapees from the famine-hit communist country, intelligence authorities said yesterday, reports AFP. The National Intelligence Service (NIS) identified the three defectors, who flew into Seoul on Saturday, as a 47-year-old engineer, his wife and their daughter. Intelligence sources are concerned by the growing number of North Korean refugees, and warned that the number may grow quickly this year as Pyongyang’s economic woes worsen. South Korean officials hope the UN will set up a refugee camp in China. But Beijing, a close ally of Pyongyang, remains reluctant. AFP adds that South Korean press reports today said a senior North Korean diplomat stationed in Germany has gone missing and is believed to have requested asylum in the United States. Reuters also reports. [North Korean family defects to South Korea and N. Korean diplomat in Germany missing, believed defected – www.afp.com; NKorea diplomat in Berlin said asking asylum – www.reuters.com] RETURN to TOP KOREA: ESCAPEES RAISE CONCERN Source: Refugees Daily Date: Thursday 7 January 1999 Six North Koreans, including the family of the a prisoner of war, have arrived in South Korea through a third country in the first defection this year, intelligence authorities said today, reports AFP in Seoul (Six North Koreans defect to South Korea). The term “third country” is generally taken to mean China. Intelligence sources also said concern was mounting in Beijing over the growing number of North Korean refugees and escapees, who could be repatriated at any time under an agreement between the two nations. “Chinese authorities are reluctant to give figures, but we know some 100,000 North Korean escapees are staying illegally there,” a high-level South Korean intelligence official said. RETURN to TOP
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