South Korean Embassies in China Turn Away Escapees from North
New America Media, News Feature, Aruna Lee, Peter Schurmann, Posted: Jan 25, 2007
Editor's Note: At the front line of an ongoing political and humanitarian crisis, Korean embassies in China are coming under harsh criticism for their recent mishandling of several cases involving South Korean citizens who fled North Korea and were reportedly turned away by their own embassies in China. Aruna Lee is a writer for New America Media. Peter Schurmann, a UC Berkeley student in Asian Studies, is currently working on a thesis focusing on Korean History.
SEOUL — South Koreans are outraged at the reported mistreatment of several South Korean citizens by their own embassy in China after they fled North Korea, report the Korean-language Chosun Daily and the Korea Times.
In what appears to be a blatant disregard for the safety of their own citizens, embassy officials in the northern Chinese city of Shenyang displayed contempt and ineptitude in responding to numerous pleas for aid from recent escapees from North Korea, according to the report. One editorial in the Chosun Daily bitterly accused the South Korean government of turning its back on its own people.
On Jan. 3, the Chosun Daily reported that Wook Il Choi, 67, crossed into China from North Korea after being held there for 31 years. Choi, along with 32 other South Korean fishermen, was kidnapped by North Korean agents in 1975 while on board a fishing vessel. Choi is only the second person to escape.
Choi and his North Korean guide left Kimchaek City in North Korea's rural Hamgyeong Province in late December. Facing sub-zero temperatures, the two men hopped on an open cargo train headed for the Tumen River marking the northern border between China and North Korea. The train was inspected at 13 different checkpoints before arriving in Hwaesan, where Choi and his guides crossed the frozen river into China.
Choi hoped to reunite with his South Korean wife Jeong Ja Yang, 66, in China and then make his way back to South Korea with her. Although the two had not seen each other for more than three decades, Choi had managed to contact her via a secret letter he sent while still in North Korea. Yang awaited Choi's arrival at an undisclosed location in China, where the two were finally reunited on December 31, 2006, after 31 years of separation.
In the following days Choi and his wife made repeated attempts to contact South Korean officials in Shenyang, who, the reports maintain, had already been notified by a humanitarian group working to secure the return of South Koreans who had been kidnapped and brought to the North. Officials at the embassy are quoted as telling the Chois that it wasn't their job to assist them, or that they should call South Korea directly. In a widely publicized account the official in charge of handling cases involving defectors at the South Korean Embassy in Shenyang reportedly demanded to know where Choi had received his phone number, prompting waves of protest from South Koreans.
Frustrated, Yang returned to Seoul to plead her husband's case directly to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which responded to the increasing pressure by arranging Choi's safe return, which finally took place on Jan. 5, 2007. Choi was greeted at Incheon International Airport by Yang and their three children, who hadn't seen their father since his abduction. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has since issued an apology on its website, promising to take actions against the officials involved in the case.
South Korean embassies in China face a difficult task in handling North Korean defectors, whom Beijing insists are economic migrants, not political refugees. Many remain in hiding, fearful of apprehension by Chinese authorities and deportation back to the North, where most face imprisonment or death. Pressured by Beijing, South Korean embassies remain reluctant to open their doors to asylum seekers, despite South Korean law, which recognizes all North Koreans as citizens of the South.
Tae Myun Kwon, the South Korean Consul General in Washington, D.C., said the arrival into China of thousands of North Korean refugees in the late 1990s placed enormous pressure on Seoul and Beijing. °Both countries had to find a way to deal with the growing humanitarian crisis, he said.
Days after the return of Choi, Korean media reported the deportation of nine family members of three South Korean POWs from China back to North Korea. The group of men and women had apparently escaped in July, 2006 to China, where they had been in hiding ever since. The report noted that embassy officials were hesitant to allow the group inside the embassy compound, so they checked the group into a nearby guesthouse where they were kept under supervision by South Korean officials.
When asked about the handling of refugees by South Korean embassy officials in Shenyang, Kwon acknowledged that embassy staff are not properly trained to handle these kinds of cases. He added that the embassy in Shenyang, where Choi sought aid, has for years experienced a daily deluge of calls from men and women seeking asylum from North Korea.
Photos by Chosun Daily
Page
1 of 1
|
