An emergency hearing entitled “China's Repatriation of North Korean Refugees” was the topic of a hearing of the U.S. China Commission held Monday by Chairman Chris Smith (NJ-04).
“Dozens of North Koreans are today at imminent risk of persecution, torture—even execution—owing to China’s decision to forcibly repatriate them in stark violation of both the spirit and the letter of the 1951 Refugee Convention and 1967 Protocol to which China has acceded,” Smith said. “The international community—especially the United Nations, the Obama Administration and the US Congress—must insist that China at long last honor its treaty obligations, end its egregious practice of systematic refoulement, or be exposed as hypocrites.” Click here to read Chairman Smith’s opening remarks.
In recent weeks, international human rights activists and organizations have called on the Chinese government not to repatriate dozens of North Korean refugees now being detained in China. There is increasing concern that the refugees and their family members may face public execution if the refugees are forcibly returned to the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea). In January, Kim Jong-un, the "supreme leader" of North Korea, reportedly threatened to "exterminate three generations" of any family with a member caught defecting from North Korea during the 100-day mourning period for the late Kim Jong-il. Despite clear international law, the Chinese government maintains an agreement with North Korea to repatriate North Korean refugees. The Commission hearing will address the current predicament of North Korean refugees who have been detained by Chinese authorities.
Song Hwa Jan, a former refugee in China repatriated back to North Korea, told the U.S. China Commission of her tragic family story in North Korea, including: her mother and two month-old newborn son dying from starvation; a daughter, 18, who left home to find food and never was heard from again; a five-year-old son who died waiting for her after she left to look for food, and; her husband, who was arrested, abused and died in jail for the crime of crossing into China to bring back a sack of rice for his children who were growing weaker and weaker from starvation.
“These defectors, who have been separated from their parents, separated from their children – these defectors who have no place to go – these North Korean refugees who are shuddering in fear in China right now, are desiring freedom in the free world, whether it be South Korea or the United States, and desire to be rescued and accepted into freedom,” testified Song Hwa Jan, who received asylum in the U.S. in 2008 and today is an activist for human rights in her homeland. “Please help us North Korean refugees.”
Another woman who was repatriated to North Korea described to the commission the imprisonment and torture she, her mother and sister suffered at the hands of both Chinese and North Korean officials before receiving asylum in 2008 in the U.S.
“I did not die from beatings, I did not die from starvation, and I was able to survive and live,” said Jinhye Jo, who is now an advocate on behalf of North Korean refugees living in China. “When I think of the almost three dozen North Korean refugees who will be experiencing torture and fear on a far worse scale than what I went through, I am filled with dread and fear, and my heart aches so much. The North Korean regime under Kim Jong Un has declared that any North Korean that attempts to escape during the mourning period for Kim Jong Il will be dealt with most severely, and these refugees who have embarrassed the regime and sought the world’s attention to save them, will surely be punished to three generations and be given the harshest sentence, if they are repatriated by China.”
Other witnesses included:
- Suzanne Scholte, President, Defense Forum Foundation; Chairman and Founding Member of the North Korea Freedom Coalition
- T. Kumar, Director, International Advocacy for Amnesty International USA
- Greg Scarlatoiu, Executive Director, the Committee for Human Rights in North Korea
- Michael Horowitz, Senior Fellow, Hudson Institute
Their testimonies will be available on the commission website at http://www.cecc.gov.
The Congressional-Executive Commission on China, established by the U.S.-China Relations Act of 2000 as China prepared to enter the WTO, is mandated by law to monitor human rights, including worker rights, and the development of the rule of law in China. Its members are a bipartisan combination of Members of Congress and White House appointees.
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