SPEAKING
FREELY China's better route for North
Korean refugees By Sokeel J
Park
Speaking Freely is an Asia
Times Online feature that allows guest writers to
have their say. Please
click hereif you are interested in
contributing.
Western media
attention on North Korea has recently been
dominated by the "Leap Day Deal" with the United
States of food aid for nuclear concessions, and by
Pyongyang's subsequent announcement of a
"satellite" launch to mark the centenary of Kim
Il-sung's birth. However, as usual, beneath all
the high-politics and focus on security concerns,
there is quite a different story involving the
North Korean people.
Away from the back
and forth in US-Democratic People's Republic of
Korea (DPRK) posturing on security matters, South
Korea has been battling with the Chinese
government over the forced repatriations of North
Korean refugees. China is hemorrhaging soft-power
on this issue, alienating the South
Korean people and
government and damaging their reputation before
the international community. In the long-run this
is a strategic mistake.
Every year
thousands of North Koreans risk their lives to
escape their country. Even in China they live in
fear, because the Chinese government's official
policy is to forcibly send back North Koreans that
have left the country without state permission.
The North Korean regime takes the issue of
defection very seriously and countless refugee
testimonies confirm that repatriated refugees are
at risk of imprisonment, forced labor, torture and
even execution.
It seems that many North
Koreans do not even see hope for improvements
under the new Kim Jong-eun leadership. Refugees
that I spoke with both before and after Kim
Jong-il's death thought that Kim Jong-un would
rule in the same mold as his father, and that life
in North Korea might even get more difficult as
the leadership moves to impose more restrictions
during the transitional period. Recent reports
coming out of the country sadly confirm that this
is the case, with market activities in particular
being curtailed since Kim Jong-il's death.
To make matters worse, since the beginning
of 2012 the Chinese government has been
cooperating with the new North Korean leadership
to crack down on people fleeing from North Korea.
In February and March these crackdowns came under
the spotlight after the Chinese authorities
arrested dozens of refugees at different locations
in Northeast China.
Relatives of the
refugees, activists and South Korean diplomats
first tried to secure their release through quiet
diplomacy while purposefully keeping the issue out
of the media, but when it became apparent that the
Chinese authorities would not show any flexibility
and repatriation was imminent, the issue was
publicized in a last ditch effort to save the
refugees.
The public campaign, using the
slogan "Save My Friend" and utilizing social media
as well as South Korean celebrity advocates,
gained unprecedented attention. The South Korean
government was pushed to make their strongest ever
public statements on the issue and President Lee
and Foreign Minister Kim both brought up the issue
in their discussions with Chinese Foreign Minister
Yang in Seoul. In addition over 175,000 people
from around the world added their voice to an
online petition, and the US government, US
congressmen, the United Nations High Commission
for Refugees (UNHCR), and the UN Secretary-General
all expressed concern for the refugees and called
on China to comply with their responsibilities
under international law.
Despite this, the
Chinese authorities forcibly repatriated all of
the North Korean refugees.
The Chinese
government claims that they deal with people
fleeing North Korea "in accordance with domestic
and international laws, and humanitarian
principles". But by cracking down on refugees and
sending them back to face harsh punishments in
North Korea, it is clear to any of the growing
number of people watching this issue that the
Chinese government is acting only in accordance
with the wishes of Pyongyang. By choosing to
promote its political relationship with the North
Korean regime over the human rights of the North
Korean people and the expressed wishes of other
governments in the region, the Chinese government
is damaging its reputation in the eyes of South
Korea, the US and the rest of the international
community.
Even domestically, young
Chinese people are increasingly recognizing North
Korea as China's most embarrassing ally. The
official respect paid to Kim Jong-il when he died
last December - "A Friend's Departure" being the
headline in the China Daily - seemed ridiculous to
them. There were even calls on the Chinese social
networking site Sina Weibo for the Chinese
government to consider the North Korean refugees'
human rights and not repatriate them. My North
Korean refugee contacts are encouraged by this and
hope that increasing numbers of Chinese people
will become aware of and feel sympathy for the
plight of North Korean refugees.
Chinese
officials should recognize that rounding up and
forcibly repatriating refugees to North Korea, in
clear contravention of international refugee law
that the Chinese government has itself signed up
to, is counterproductive to any goal of improving
China's international image.
The treatment
of North Korean refugees, along with China's
attitude in the South China Sea disputes, can be
seen as test cases for the Chinese government's
sincere commitment to their 'peaceful rise'. If
the Chinese government continues to disregard
international law and the rights of neighboring
countries' citizens as well as public opinion in
the region, and instead pursues narrow strategic
interests in alignment with the North Korean
leadership, their neighbors will increasingly view
them as a belligerent threat instead of a
trustworthy cooperative partner.
The more
governments and people in the region question the
Chinese government's desire to play by the rules
and act as a responsible stakeholder, the more
they will seek closer ties with the US. In the
end, this will undermine China's own goal of
reducing American influence in Asia.
Beijing is even reported to be interested
in pursuing a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with
South Korea. They should therefore take note of
the amount of beef that the South Korean public
had during their government's FTA negotiations
with the US. If China wants to go where the EU and
US have already gone and benefit from an enhanced
economic relationship with South Korea, then at
some point they are going to have to think
carefully about addressing the South Korean
public's increasing distrust of China.
The
Chinese government fears that if they changed
their policy towards North Korean defectors, it
would be a slap in the face for the North Korean
regime. There is a face-saving way around this:
instead of changing their official policy, all
they need to do is to not actively implement it by
not instructing local police forces and security
agencies to crack down on refugees.
The
Chinese authorities can quietly turn a blind eye
to refugees that leave North Korea and travel
through China on their way to South Korea, as they
have done in the past. This would protect their
relationship with South Korea and prevent their
international reputation from being tarnished.
Even the Chinese government's fears that more lax
security would encourage a destabilizing flood of
refugees are no longer valid since the North
Korean regime has significantly tightened border
security on their side since the summer of 2011.
If the North Korean leadership demands
China's cooperation in cracking down on refugees,
the Chinese government should put more weight on
their international reputation and make Pyongyang
realize who holds the cards. They should ask
Pyongyang what they would prefer out of food aid,
energy assistance, investment and infrastructure
development, diplomatic cover, and complicity in
human rights abuses through the repatriation of
refugees. The North Korean regime will soon
realize where their priorities lie.
China's long-term interests are better
served by building trust and better relationships
with the rest of the international community by
demonstrating its commitment to developing as a
responsible global power that treats the people of
its neighbors with dignity. Ceasing their
crackdowns on North Korean refugees is not just
the right thing to do, it is also in China's
national interest.
Sokeel J Park
is Research and Policy Analyst for LiNK
(Liberty in North Korea), a US-based NGO that
provides emergency assistance to North Korean
refugees. Opinions expressed in this article do
not necessarily represent the views of LiNK.
Speaking Freely is an Asia Times
Online feature that allows guest writers to have
their say.Please
click hereif you are interested in
contributing.
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