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It was confirmed Monday that 62 North Korean defectors, who were suddenly arrested in Beijing on Oct. 26 as China made clear its hard line policies against defectors, have already been forcefully repatriated to North Korea. As it was extremely exceptional for China to suddenly repatriate such a large number of defectors forcefully no more than 10 days after their arrest, it appears China has hardened its position to separate pure defectors from organized defections into diplomatic compounds, severely punishing the later.
A Chinese source familiar with the defector issue said the 62 defectors, who were arrested in a Beijing suburb, were repatriated to Sinuiju, North Korea through Dandong, China between Nov. 6 and 7. A South Korean government official said China was likely to have already repatriated the defectors to North Korea in order to prevent the defectors from going on hunger strike or making the situation any more complicated as the site of their detention was revealed.
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Fifty human rights activists, including Defense Forum president Suzanne Sholte (right), protest in front of the Embassy of the People's Republic of China in at Hyoja-dong, Seoul on Tuesday. They object to China's forced repatriation of 62 North Koreans refugees to North Korea.
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In the early morning of Oct. 26, police raided two apartments in Beijing's Tongzhou district, arresting 62 North Korean defectors who were hiding there and two South Korean NGO members who were helping them. The two South Koreans have yet to be freed by the Chinese authorities.
Meanwhile, North Korean human rights groups converged in front of the Chinese Embassy in Hyoja-dong on Tuesday, holding a joint press conference in which they condemned the forced repatriation of the 62 defectors. They said once they were returned to North Korea, defectors were brought to political prison camps where they were subjected to cruel torture and brutal punishments. That Beijing would repatriate defectors back to such a place proved China was still an underdeveloped nation in terms of human rights, they said.
Thirty individuals participated in the press conference, including Defense Forum Foundation president Suzanne Sholte, GNP lawmaker Kim, Moon-soo, officials from the Democracy Network Against the North Korean Gulag. The Defense Forum Foundation, a civilian body that deals with security issues and human rights, has shown much interest in the North Korean human rights issue, having invited former North Korean Workers Party secretary Hwang Jang-yeop to the United States so he could lecture before the U.S. Congress on the state of human rights in North Korea.
(Han Jae-hyeon, rookie@chosun.com )
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