ICC Note: China continues to violate international humanitarian principles as they increase a crackdown of North Korean defectors in China, especially in the past two months. North Korean defectors who are sent back to North Korea often experience imprisonment, torture, and in some cases even death. Many of the people incarcerated are Christians who are put in horrific labor camps. Countries including the United States have shown willingness to accept North Korean refugees for resettlement. The international community needs to put more pressure on China to allow North Korean defectors to move to a safe third country.
11/08/2017 China (BosNewsLife) – Christian rights activists have urged China not to forcibly repatriate ten North Korean defectors, including a four-year-old child, who were detained by police in Shenyang city.
Their appeal came while U.S. President Donald Trump issued a direct and personal warning to North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Un, saying continued nuclear provocation could result in the communist nation’s obliteration.
The seven women and three men fleeing North Korea were detained November 4 after police raided a house where they were sheltering in Shenyang in China’s Liaoning province, BosNewsLife learned.
Reuters news agency quoted a man who identified himself only as Lee as saying that his wife and son had met the rest of a group at a safe house in Shenyang, but lost contact with him last week.
Advocacy group Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW) said the group, “whose ages range from a child of three to adults in their 60s,” are currently detained at Shenyang police station and face “the threat of imminent repatriation.”
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