Group Executions and Brutal Prisons

The Chosun Ilbo,22 July 2001. A former North Korean People's Army instructor Cho Young Chol, 33, who fled the North in August 1998 and came to the South in December the following year, has recently given an eyewitness account of the gruesome reality of a North Korean prison operated by the State Security Agency, and a secondhand account of a group execution of people charged with aiding fellow citizens to escape to the South. It's rare that the executed have all been identified. 

On July 1, 1998, six people, among them my elder brother Cho Soung Chol, were executed in public under the Namsan Bridge in Onsong County, North Hamgyong Province. It was dubbed the (South Korean) "National Intelligence Service-instigated Espionage Team Case"...

China Steps Up Repatriation Of North Korean Refugees 

Washington Post, July 23 2001 .BEIJING, July 22 China has launched a campaign of forced repatriation of North Korean refugees, according to an international humanitarian organization, which expressed "grave concern" about what will happen to the refugees when they return home. The international medical charity Doctors Without Borders said in a report to be released Monday that posters had appeared along the border between China and North Korea exhorting Chinese to turn in North Korean refugees and warning of steep fines for harboring a refugee. The report, citing refugees' accounts, said those sent back to North Korea faced reprisals ranging "from interrogation, reeducation and imprisonment to capital punishment."

The report said the repatriation campaign reached its climax after a North Korean family of seven sought refuge at the U.N. refugee agency's Beijing office last month. Under intense international pressure, China allowed the family to leave the country, and they ultimately went to South Korea. China made the decision right before its successful bid to host the 2008 Summer Olympics, prompting speculation that the decision was made to mute criticism of its human rights record. It is not known how many people have been repatriated since the campaign began in May, but the group estimated that it is in the thousands. "Refugees and aid workers report an increase in the number of arrests and forced repatriation since the beginning of the campaign," the report said. "A resident living in one of the border cities reports that 50 people are being repatriated here every other day, compared to 20 per week in the past."

Tens of thousands of North Koreans have fled to China, mostly in search of food. A famine caused mostly by bad agricultural and economic policies has ravaged North Korean since 1994, causing an estimated 1 million to 2 million to die out of a population of 22 million. Last year, China forcibly repatriated another North Korean family, even after U.N. refugee officials had determined that they would face persecution if they were sent home. U.N. refugee officials accused Beijing of violating the U.N. covenant protecting U.N.-designated refugees from forced repatriation, which China has signed.

Doctors Without Borders pulled out of North Korea in early 2000 when it was denied access to some of North Korea's poorest people. Several Western aid agencies have said the North Korean government refuses to allow food aid to be distributed to the neediest people, but channels it instead to families tied to the ruling Korean Workers' Party, the military and workers considered necessary to maintain Kim Jong Il's government.
Some aid agencies said Western governments have been reluctant to criticize this practice because their main concern is that North Korea maintain its moratorium on missile tests. North Korea fired a two-stage rocket over Japanese airspace in 1998, prompting widespread concern that it had a program to develop intercontinental ballistic missiles. North Korea was also believed to be working on a design for a nuclear warhead.

Citing comments by witnesses and interviews in the region, the Doctors Without Borders report said that signs posted this month in the border town of Longjing warned people that they would be severely punished for helping North Korean refugees. Police have set up checkpoints to document the identities of people in minibuses and taxis, have entered factories and other workplaces to inspect identity papers, and conducted house-to-house checks to verify residence permits, the report said. "North Koreans are living in constant fear of being caught in the net of a systematic search, arrest and repatriation policy," it said. "The Chinese population is being mobilized, with the offer of rewards, to report on the presence of North Koreans," it added, saying that fines for helping refugees ranged from $500 to $4,000. Beijing says North Koreans who flee to China are "economic migrants," not refugees. China signed a treaty with North Korea to return refugees, but the treaty has been implemented only sporadically. 

The rise in forced repatriations comes during a nationwide anti-crime campaign, called Strike Hard. In some regions, the campaign has taken on drug traffickers, in others, ethnic separatists. In the border regions, mostly in Jilin province, the campaign has focused on arresting and repatriating North Korean refugees. Recent interviews with refugees in the border region reflected the tightening security situation. Two refugees, one 19 and the other 20, said they were finding it more difficult to live in China now that the government was cracking down. Interviewed near Changbai Mountain along the Korean border, they said they had been caught in China previously and returned to North Korea, where they were incarcerated in a camp for several months before being released in June. One reported seeing people die there from exhaustion and overwork. Both men said they had not received U.N. rations while in North Korea." Why does American and South Korean food only go to Pyongyang and never into my mouth?" asked the 19-year-old over his first real meal in weeks. The 20-year-old said he had recently converted to Christianity. "I pray for my mother, and I pray for North Korea to quickly unify with South Korea, so that Christians can be safe in North Korea and people will be better off there" he said. Researcher Gloria Hsu contributed to this report.

За попытку перебраться в КНДР приговорен к тюремному заключению сроком на один год 28-летний гражданин Южной Кореи

Как передает РИА "Новости", южнокорейца обвиняют в нарушении закона о государственной безопасности, который запрещает свободные контакты с Северной Кореей. По поступившим из Сеула сообщениям, обвиняемый, представленный общественнности лишь по фамилии О, был арестован 30 марта этого года при попытке нелегально пересечь демилитаризованную зону между Югом и Севером Кореи. Несмотря на договоренности о примирении, действующие между двумя частями разделенного надвое Корейского полуострова с 1992 года, в Республике Корея до сих пор действуют законы, по которым КНДР рассматривается как "незаконная организация", сообщает РИА "НОВОСТИ". |25.07.2001| in Russian

CHINA STEPS UP DEPORTATION OF NORTH KOREAN REFUGEES

Chosun Ilbo  reported that the Washington Post said Monday that the number of DPRK refugees deported back to the DPRK by the PRC is sharply increasing as security forces have become more vigorous in hunting them down. The article cited a report released by Medicins Sans Frontiers (MSF or Doctors Without Borders). The report cited interviews with residents from border regions, which revealed that around 50 people are forcibly repatriated to the DPRK every other day, a drastic increase from 20 per week in the past. According to MSF, since the Beijing government shored up its effort to return DPRK refugees since last May, the number of the deportees is expected to reach thousands. (Kang In-sun, "CHINA STEPS UP DEPORTATION OF NORTH KOREAN REFUGEES," Washington, 07/23/01)

South Korea to Let Hwang Jang-yop Visit US at ‘Aappropriate Time'

The government will allow North Korean defector Hwang Jang-yop to visit the United States "at an appropriate time" after sufficient discussion about his safety with officials in the U.S., the National Intelligence Service (NIS) said Monday July 16, reported Yonhap News in Seoul. The NIS added that Hwang and Kim Dok-hong, who also defected South Korea with Hwang, are enjoying their freedom in "the safe house where they have been living since their defection," said a report released by the National Assembly Intelligence Committee. Hwang is presently writing a new book on a philosophy of humanity, it said. According to Chairman Kim Myung-sup of the committee, Hwang does not like to appear in the parliament for answering lawmakers' questions, nor does he want to do anything that is not in the national interest. The Chosun Ilbo 17 July 2001

China Strengthens Crackdown of N.K. Refugees  

The Joongang Ilbo July 12, 2001. China has hardened its crackdown of North Korean refugees, those who escaped from the dire condition of homeland and badly in need of asylum with high incentives like cash reward and stern punishment for those who assist the runaways. Along the border between China and North Korea, the ``Strike Hard'' campaign, which began in April, has focused largely on smuggling. But refugees and residents said fines and rewards have targeted North Koreans hiding in China. As part of the campaign, police are offering 2,000 yuan ($242) to Chinese citizens who turn in North Koreans and fining those caught helping refugees 3,000 yuan, residents of the border region said, requesting anonymity.

For many of the tens of thousands of North Koreans already living a precarious existence in China, the choice is to disappear deep underground or risk deportation back home to the grim food shortages they left and possible punishment.``The scariest thing is right now, China has launched a campaign to catch and repatriate North Koreans,'' said a North Korean woman hiding with her Chinese husband on a farm in northeastern China.``If we get caught, we'd go to jail and I don't know if we would live or die,'' she said.

The state of limbo in which North Koreans live after fleeing years of famine was highlighted last month when a family of seven North Korean refugees sneaked into the Beijing office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and demanded asylum. After several days of delicate talks, China let the family go to South Korea via Singapore and the Philippines on humanitarian grounds, avoiding a standoff and bad press just before Friday's crucial vote on Beijing's bid to host the 2008 Olympics. The decision did not change Beijing's insistence that North Koreans in China are not refugees. It calls them economic migrants who must be sent home. China fears opening a floodgate of potential refugees and does not want the UNHCR poking around its borders. It has quietly given North Korea food to help stave off famine that has stalked the country since the mid-1990s, and coal for power.

The UNHCR said the seven North Koreans deserved refugee status and represented just ``the tip of an iceberg.'' South Korean aid groups say that between 150,000 and 300,000 North Koreans are scattered in the hills of northeast China. North Koreans interviewed on the Chinese side of the Tumen River border with North Korea last week had not heard of the UNHCR sit-in, but were keenly aware of the ``Strike Hard'' drive. One North Korean couple living in China for two years fled to the countryside recently after the crackdown forced them to abandon home and work in the city of Yanji. The couple, who had to give their ailing three-year-old son to another family because they could not afford medical treatment, feared being split up if caught by Chinese police. ``Now the Chinese police are sending North Koreans back,'' said the wife, who declined to give her name. 

``If my husband or I got sent back, I don't know what I'd do,'' said the woman. She said they had been scraping by, helping with farm work since the crackdown forced her husband to stop working on construction sites. Her husband said he hoped the Chinese would not lump law-abiding North Koreans who crossed the border to survive with the smugglers and criminal gangs who triggered the campaign. ``We came here to earn money and make a living,'' he said. ``For us the law is the law and were not doing anything to break the law,'' he said. 

Two North Korean men whom a reporter found cowering in a wooded area on their third day since crossing the Tumen river said they came to earn cash to buy medicine, which is scarce and expensive in North Korea. One man said he didn't even tell his wife he had left so she would be protected from any reprisal from the North Korean government which refugees say frequently imprisons people returned from China and may punish families. ``I have to keep it a secret because even if I told her she'd have to keep it a secret. My wife and my children shouldn't know about this,'' said the man. Both men were former soldiers dressed in clothing given to them by local residents who told them they were too afraid to provide more. But local folk had given them bread and liquor on the 45-km (28-mile) trip from the border to Yanji.

Nearby was an abandoned makeshift shack filled with cast-off North Korean clothing and sleeping bags. Villagers nearby said at least 20 North Koreans had hidden out there before fleeing the recent crackdown.In June, the human rights group Amnesty International said refugees forced to return home face ``serious human rights violations, including imprisonment in harsh conditions, torture and the death penalty.'' The first man said he would ``probably starve in jail'' if he were sent back home.His partner said he would rather die than go back. “If you were police coming to capture us, then I would have had no choice but to kill you,” the second man told a journalist who stumbled upon his hideaway. 

Local Movement Attempts to Save Mother of North Korean Defector 

By Yoo Soh-jung Staff reporter. Korea Herald 13 July 2001.The South Korean activist who helped Jang Gil-su and his family come to the South by way of China has embarked on a new mission: to rescue Gil-su's mother. Moon Gook-han, secretary-general of the "People to Save (Jang) Gil-su's Family" said yesterday that he wants to save the 16-year-old's mother, Jung Sun-mi, 45, who is allegedly confined in a political prisoners' camp in North Korea. 

Last month, the seven-member family finally made their way into the South after making several attempts to escape from the famine-stricken North since March 1997. The family arrived in Seoul on June 29. "These people are deprived of their basic human rights, and we feel that it's our duty to help our fellow brothers and sisters suffering in the North," said Hwang Jae-il, manager of People to Save (Jang) Gil-su's Family. According to the movement organizers, Jung, along with her mother-in-law and a couple of other relatives, were deported to the North from China in March. 

As part of its plan to free Jung, the movement will send awareness letters to human rights groups around the world, submit a petition to North Korean leader Kim Jong-il and ask visitors to the North to inquire about Jung's welfare. The movement lacks funds, however, to undertake this plan, they said. What it urgently needs are volunteers proficient in foreign languages. Those fluent in English, Japanese, French and other languages can help translate Korean documents and letters. The movement said it will send copies of Gil-su's diary, which he kept throughout his painful exodus, to the United Nations and Amnesty International. The diary tells of Gil-su's anxiety over his imprisoned mother. One part reads: "I heard about my mother from my grandmother. It was the saddest news I've ever heard in my life." 

Also recorded in the personal journal are what Gil-su believes may be his mother's last words: "When you meet your uncle and aunt (on his father's side) in the South, think of them as your father and mother. Even in my dreams will I wish for you to be in the South." Moon's interest in the plight of North Korean defectors began in the mid-90's, when he made frequent visits to China on business. He decided to launch the People to Save the Gil-su Family movement in August 1999.

S. Koreans Secretly Search for Families in North

The Chosun Ilbo, 13 July 2001. The following article was written by Chisa Fujioka, a reporter for Reuters. 
C.S. Lee is a South Korean kindergarten principal who did something desperate three months ago. Lee, 69, stepped into a small, cramped office in downtown Seoul for one last try at finding a brother who left for school one sunny morning a half a century ago and never returned. One of more than 7 million South Koreans whose families were torn apart during the 1950-53 Korean War, Lee believes his older brother is still alive in Communist North Korea. He has been haunted by the decades of silence. Even today, the two Koreas remain technically at war. A land mine-laden border blocks all contacts and even letters and telephone calls are not exchanged. 

Lee said he paid $386 to enlist the services of a ``family broker'' who promised to locate his brother in the North and sneak him into neighboring China for a short reunion. ``My only wish is to see him while we are both alive, but we are getting old. One of us might get sick and then it will be too late,'' said Lee, clutching faded photos of his brother. Aid organizations have reported widespread famine in the North in recent years, shaking worried relatives in the South with no means of reaching their loved ones. It will cost Lee up to $7,000 if the reunion takes place, but his brother could pay a far higher price as North Koreans face possible execution if caught slipping out. 

DARING MEETINGS 

Still, brokers say more families are resorting to daring secret meetings as the euphoria of last year's historic North-South summit fades, and with it dreams of meetings through regular family reunions. Last June's summit led to three official reunions, with 100 family members from each side meeting each time but talks on more have stalled. ``People were so excited after the summit but most of that feeling is gone now and families are turning desperate,'' said Song Nak-hwan, the broker Lee visited. 

Song said up to 30 people a month walk into his small office, most of them over 70 and desperate. They come with sketchy stories, old addresses and faded photographs of schoolchildren who would now be in their 70s, if still alive. The information is sent to contacts in China, who tap into a web of ethnic Korean Chinese and North Korean defectors. It is then smuggled into North Korea by collaborators ranging from traders who slip into China regularly to North Korean agents hunting for defectors but open to ribes from brokers. Intermediaries get more than $3,000 for bringing family members safely to China, while contacts in China and border guards also get paid. 

Song's little office, backed by the 1,000-member Korea Unifying Movement Association civic group, has reunited one in three families it has tried to help over the last nine years. Its most recent success was reuniting an 84-year-old man and a daughter he lost in the North when she was just three. The daughter, now 55, walked for 20 days across barren North Korean countryside lugging sacks of rice and corn. She avoided border guards and made her way to a Chinese hotel for a weeklong reunion with her father and the chance to fulfil a lifelong wish -- to cook him a meal. ``He was so happy. He gave his daughter a piggyback every day for a week. I suppose it was to make up for all the lost time,'' Song said. 

But successful reunions are rare as most North Koreans are too afraid to cross the border and many are caught trying. ‘`The families and the North Koreans, they're all risking their lives to do this. I've heard of many people who've gotten caught and were likely executed,'' Song said. It's not uncommon for petrified North Koreans to down a few stiff drinks before the final stretch across the border, he added. 

South Korea's government, despite efforts to improve ties with the North, is quietly helping families draw relatives out for meetings, mostly in China. The Unification Ministry, which provides financial assistance and posts a list of brokers on its Web Site, estimates 10 to 15 families hold secret meetings every month. For Lee, despondent after a broker 20 years ago failed to find his brother, it was time to try again. ``There isn't a thing I wouldn't do to see my brother,'' he said. ``I can't start to think of what I will say to him. I'm afraid we won't have much in common after being apart for so long. ... I think I'll just start by giving him a hug.''

NK TRAINS TEENS TO SPY ON REFUGEES

Chosun Ilbo reported that the DPRK is reportedly training teenage boys and girls, who were forcefully returned after escaping to the PRC, for special duty as spies and is sending them to find other DPRK defectors, an ROK missionary group claimed Thursday. A spokesperson for Good Friends, a group supporting DPRK defectors, said that it was his knowledge that spies were sent from 1998 when a great number of refugees poured across the border area, and that as a result, the number of deportees rose sharply. The source added that there were rumors from last year that deported young boys and girls were used as watchers of DPRK refugees or their supporters. (Park Min-seon, Seoul, 07/11/01)

HWANG LIKELY TO VISIT US IN OCTOBER

Chosun Ilbo reported that the ROK government is studying a plan to allow high-ranking DPRK defector, Hwang Jang-yop to visit the US in October according to a government source Wednesday. He said that it was impossible for Hwang to go to US at the end of this month because the Congressional invitation was delivered at short notice, but that negotiations would soon get underway between the US and the ROK to facilitate the trip. (Joo Yong-joong, "HWANG LIKELY TO VISIT US IN OCTOBER," Seoul, 07/11/01)

North Korean Child Refugee Dies of Exhaustion 

The Chosun Ilbo,9 July 2001. An eleven-year-old North Korean boy, Yu Chol Min, who fled his country with his father to escape starvation in April 1998, died Saturday from exhaustion while trying to cross the Chinese and Mongolian border, a missionary organization Duri Hana helping North Korean refugees wrote on its Internet homepage Monday. A spokesman for the organization said they received notice that Chol Min and four other North Korean refugees got lost in the desert while trying to cross the Chinese and Mongolian border. Chol Min lost his family in April 1997, when his two younger brothers died after starving for 5 days, and his mother also lost her life as she had nothing to eat after giving birth. Chol Min and his father took a night train to the border with China and crossed the Tumen River. 

Life in China, however, was not easy as Chol Min's father could not get a steady job, they were always on the run hiding from Chinese police. Chol Min was left at the custody of an ethnic Korean Chinese friend because his father thought that then at least one of them would not get caught and die. But that was the last his father saw of him. The father came to Korea in December last year through the help of a missionary group. After looking for Chol Min, the missionaries discovered where Chol Min was in May avoiding the Chinese police, while looking for him. However, Chol Min ended his short 11 years of life in the desert while fleeing from reinforced Chinese police. 

Twenty-five North Korean Defectors Being Questioned in Seoul 

BBC Monitoring Service - United Kingdom; Jul 6, 2001. Seoul, 6 July: Twenty-five North Koreans who fled the country have recently arrived in Seoul and are being questioned on their motives for defection, the National Intelligence Service (NIS) said Friday [6 July]. Hailing from Hamgyong and Yanggang provinces bordering China, the defectors fled the North between May 1996 and March 2000 due to hunger. They include 10 factory workers, one trade official, one student and three unemployed, the security agency said. A total of 250 North Korean escapees have come to South Korea so far this year. The tally includes the seven-member family of 16-year-old Jang Kil-su that recently sought asylum in Seoul after appealing to the UNHCR [United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees] in Beijing for help. 

To Defectors, China Makes More Sense 

by Lee Young-jong

The Joongang Ilbo July 05, 2001. YANBIAN, China － It is not the wish of every North Korean defector in this northeastern Chinese city to settle in South Korea. Many have given up, and an increasing number of defectors are instead working in Yanbian and sending money to their families. Kim Sok-chol, 27, said he has been sending money he makes working in a sauna to his family in the North since 1999, the year he crossed over into China. Mr. Kim makes 10 to 20 yuan ($1-2) from each client at the bathhouse, which is more than most people make in a month in the North. One reason the defectors shy away from going to the South lies in what they claim is a change for the worse in the Seoul government's interest in them since last year's inter-Korean summit. "The defectors here know all too well that the settlement grant has been drastically cut and that employment is not easy," a representative of a religious group said. But when entire families defect, they still prefer going to Seoul. Fifty families last year and 39 families so far this year have reached South Korea from China. "Seoul should take a real interest in the protection of families that defect from the North because they have the greatest difficulty residing in China," an official at a support group in Yanbian said.

NK CRITICIZES US INVITATION TO HWANG

Joongang Ilbo reported that the DPRK on Saturday criticized two US congressmen who invited DPRK defector Hwang Jang-yop to testify on Capitol Hill.  Republican Representatives Henry J. Hyde of Illinois, the head of the House International Relations Committee, and Christopher Cox of California recently invited Hwang to testify before congressional committees about the DPRK. "If the U.S. stages a ridiculous burlesque by inviting such human scum as traitor Hwang Jang-yop, instead of taking an honest attitude toward the improvement of the North Korea-U.S. relations ... 

NK CRITICIZES US INVITATION TO HWANG

Joongang Ilbo reported that the DPRK on Saturday criticized two US congressmen who invited DPRK defector Hwang Jang-yop to testify on Capitol Hill.  Republican Representatives Henry J. Hyde of Illinois, the head of the House International Relations Committee, and Christopher Cox of California recently invited Hwang to testify before congressional committees about the DPRK. "If the U.S. stages a ridiculous burlesque by inviting such human scum as traitor Hwang Jang-yop, instead of taking an honest attitude toward the improvement of the North Korea-U.S. relations ... this will only further worsen the bilateral relations," the DPRK's official foreign news outlet, KCNA, quoted a Foreign Ministry spokesman as saying.  The spokesman, who was not identified, said that the invitation reflected efforts by the Bush administration to "isolate and stifle" the DPRK and would damage plans to reopen talks about security.  "This more clearly indicates that the U.S. talk about the resumption of dialogue with North Korea is no more than a fiction," the spokesman said. (Lee Soo-Jeong, "N. KOREA LAMBASTES U.S. CONGRESSMEN," Seoul, 07/09/01) and Chosun Ilbo (Kim In-mok, "NK CRITICIZES US INVITATION TO HWANG," Seoul, 07/07/01)

Хван Чжан Ёп хочет поехать в Америку, но его не пускают... 

США хотят знать точно, разрешит ли официальный Сеул совершить визит в Вашингтон известному северокорейскому перебежчику Хван Чжан Ёпу. Об этом 5 июля прямо заявил спикер Госдепартамента США Ричард Баучер. На вопрос о том, согласен ли Госдепартамент принять соответствующие меры по обеспечению безопасности Хвана, спикер сказал, что департамент уведомит о визите соответствующие органы и скоординирует все вопросы с местными и федеральными агентствами по обеспечению безопасности. Напомним, что 78-летний Хван, секретарь ЦК Трудовой партии КНДР, бывший одно время учителем нынешнего лидера КНДР Ким Чен Ира, перебежал в Сеул через Пекин в 1997 году. Недавно американские конгрессмены Хенри Хайд и Кристофер Кокс пригласили его дать показания на слушаниях в Конгрессе двадцатых числах июля. Хван планирует также вступить на семинаре в Вашингтоне с лекцией на тему «Правда о Северной Корее». Тем не менее, правительство РК, по всей вероятности, не даст ему разрешение на поездку в США, так как это может нанести ущерб процессу межкорейского примирения. 

...И правильно сделает. Хван, в общем-то, человек слабо "контролирующий ситуацию". По приезде на Юг он, помнится, пытался активно заниматься политикой, собираясь доказать всем, что идеи "чучхе" - "очень замечательные", но пхеньянский режим их извратил, скатившись к культу личности. В результате, под предлогом обеспечения его безопасности, Национальная разведслужба (местное КГБ) фактически посадила Хвана под домашний арест. Он однако не успокоился и стал большим другом местной оппозиции, доказывая, что Пхеньян, когда овечает на мирные инициативы Сеула, на самом деле просто усыпляет бдительность южнокорейцев, а сам денно и нощно готовится к войне. Оппозиция, ищущая поводы дискредитировать "солнечную политику" Ким Тэ Чжуна, была очень довольна и таскалась с Хваном, как с писаной торбой. Теперь его, видимо, решили поэксплуатировать и американские политические динозавры вроде Джесси Хелмса. В результате Сеул оказался в странной ситуации. Не пускать человека, тем более по просьбе "родного союзника", вроде бы нехорошо. С другой стороны, давать американским консерваторам новый повод для разжигания антисеверокорейских страстей в преддверии визита на Юг Ким Чен Ира совсем не хочется, сообщает The Seoul Herald.|09.07.2001| (in Russian)

Двадцать пять северокорейских граждан, преимущественно студентов, бежавших из КНДР, прибыли в Сеул

Двадцать пять северокорейских граждан, преимущественно студентов, бежавших из КНДР, прибыли в Сеул. Об этом, как передает РИА "Новости", сообщили официальные представители службы разведки Южной Кореи. Они отметили, что перебежчики нелегально прибыли в Сеул из третьей страны, название которой не разглашается. Фамилии граждан КНДР также не были названы, чтобы не нанести ущерба их родственникам в Северной Корее. За первые 6 месяцев этого года около 250 жителей КНДР перебрались в соседнюю Южную Корею, что значительно превышает аналогичные показатели прошлого года, когда число беженцев составило немногим более 300 человек. По неофициальным данным количестве перебежчиков из Северной Кореи, скрывающихся на территории Китая, составляет десятки тысяч человек, сообщает РИА "НОВОСТИ".09.07.2001 (in Russian)

US Delivers Invitation to Hwang Jang-yop

The Chosun Ilbo, 4 July 2001. US congress officials carrying a invitation letter to the defected North Korean Worker's Party secretary Hwang Jang-yop to a congressional hearing scheduled to be held around July 22 were denied to meet him but were managed to deliver it indirectly, a diplomatic source said Tuesday. The source said the US congress officials including aids for Jim Doran Helms, the former head of the Senate foreign relation committee arrived in Seoul Sunday, however, Korean government authorities refused to arrange a meeting with Hwang. A source close to Hwang confirmed Tuesday that the former North Korean party's top ideologue has received the invitation letter with a US government's guarantee for his safety during the trip and decided to travel to Washington D.C. to testify problems with North Korean government and its human right situation for the congressional hearing.

Escape From a Prison-State

Washington Post, 3 July 2001. LAST WEEKEND seven members of a North Korean family managed to achieve what tens of thousands of other refugees from their country's brutal dictatorship have been unjustly denied: protection provided by the United Nations and asylum in South Korea. Like up to 300,000 other North Koreans, the family of Jung Tae-jun fled the state-imposed starvation, police brutality and labor camps of the north for China, where they hid for two years among the ethnic Korean population. Unlike all the rest, they managed to contact the Beijing office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, which, after several days of standoff, overcame China's resistance to allowing their evacuation. This small victory for the UNHCR, which has done little to help one of the world's biggest communities of refugees, ought to raise a much larger question: Why should the thousands of other Korean refugees in China be denied similar assistance?...

108 Illegal Entrants Including NK Defectors Disappeared 

The Donga Ilbo,2 July , 2001. The Police are searching the traces of the 108 illegal entrants including Chosun-tribes in China and the North Korean defectors, who smuggled themselves in the country through the West coast and disappeared in the area of Dangjin, Chungnam. However, the Maritime Police Agency, the National Police Agency, and the Military have not recognized their illegal entrance until three days after the incident. 

According to the Dangjin Police Station, the 108 (including 20 women) illegal entrants including North Korean Kim Hong-Kyun (37) and Chosun-tribes in China arrived at the West coast on June 29 and stayed at a J apartment in Yugok-Ri and scattered themselves, except for Mr. Kim, in groups of two. The incident was revealed by the arrest of Mr. Kim, who had injured his legs and could not afford the cost for his runaway, by a resident`s report to the police on July 1. 

Mr. Kim testified that ``We took on board of three fishing boats in China on June 26 and transferred to a mother ship and arrived in an unidentified coast of Korea. On arriving there, we moved by three vans to a high-rise apartment.`` He also said, ``In the apartment, people ran away by passenger cars and vans in groups of two after paying 13.5 million won per each person to a guide.`` 

The 15-story apartment, in which the illegal entrants were stationed, was a dormitory of the Hanbo Steel but has been vacant since the bankruptcy of the company. Mr. Kim said in the police investigation that he is a North Korean defector from the South Hamkyong province and has his wife and two children in the North. He went to Russia as a lumberjack in 1990 and moved to China in 1994. He had worked there as a bath-assistant at a public bathhouse and a LP gas deliverer for a living.

North Korean Defectors on the Rise

Arirang TV, July 02 2001. The number of North Korean defectors fleeing to South Korea is sharply on the rise. According to the Unification Ministry, a total of 226 North Koreans have so far succeeded in their trip down South. The figure is not far from last year's total at 312. The ministry's officials predict the final tally at the year end may be far greater to double last year's level. Meanwhile, surging numbers of North Korean defectors are also causing concern for the South Korean government. On top of financial strains, the state-run shelter can only accomodate 130 people. Civic organizations in South Korea estimate some 300,000 North Korean escapees are currently hiding out in China. 

Somewhere to Run To

A North Korean family in China makes a bold bid for asylum—and wins its freedom 
BY MATTHEW FORNEY and DONALD MACINTYRE 

Sneaking out of North Korea involves the simple act of fording the narrow Tumen river into China. It's so shallow in some places a child can do it. Moving on to another country—that's a tough one. As many as a quarter million North Korean refugees have crossed the line but remain near the border, hiding from Chinese police. So when seven members of the Jang family blazed an audacious trail to freedom, China wasn't sure how to react. After a complex trek in which a South Korean businessman led them to Beijing, the Jangs gathered June 26 for what they feared would be their final breakfast together. When they finished, the family matriarch gave everybody, including her teenage grandkids, small tablets of rat poison: if the police were to grab them, they would commit collective suicide. They then marched into a United Nations office to demand sanctuary. "They preferred death to being taken back," says Moon Guk Han, the businessman who helped them. 

Orphan Defectors Receive an Assist

The Joongang Ilbo, 1 July 2001 by Kim Eun-sun. On June 10, in a house in Yanbien, China, Yeong-seok, Gyeong-ho, Sang-min, Jae-yeong and Gi-nam met the 50-year-old missionary Tim Peters. It was the first time the orphans － and North Korean defectors － had seen him in two months. In their hands they were clutching the homework he had assigned them the last time he saw them. Mr. Peters is a representative of Helping Hands Korea (www.familymission.com), a group that supports North Korean defectors in China. He established the organization in May 1996 when he heard about the miserable plight of North Korean defectors. 

Mr. Peters has worked in the Korean office of UNESCO since 1975 and as an advisor to the Federation of Korean Industries since last year. Helping Hands Korea provides sanctuary and food for North Korean defectors. The organization is supported by about 40 volunteers from Korea and China, who hold fund-raising events such as concerts.The organization is currently caring for 35 orphan defectors from North Korea. The orphans are left with sympathetic foster families or in temporary residencies such as orphanages in China. Yeong-seok and Gyeong-ho were once close to starvation on the streets of Yanbien. But in January, Helping Hands Korea found them refuge with families of Korean descent in China. They call Mr. Peters "father." He holds Bible classes and teaches them English.Mr. Peters said orphans who have defected from North Korea suffer from malnutrition and anxiety. The orphans have the added stress of avoiding Chinese security police, who will send them back to North Korea, he said. 

DPRK Foreign Ministry spokesman on case of border transgressors

Pyongyang, June 30 (KCNA) -- A spokesman for the DPRK Foreign Ministry on Friday answered a question put by KCNA as regards foreign news reports about the "issue of refugees". He said: Some South Korean and western media have reported that the UN high commissioner for refugees office in Beijing granted refugee status to a citizen of the DPRK, Jang Kil Su and his family who illegally crossed its border with china, and whisked them off to a third country. the case is a down-the-line plot motivated by an insidious political purpose. To be correct, Jang Kil Su and his family are not refugees but those who illegally crossed the border. When the country was under the difficult conditions those ordinary people crossed the border to go to china, ready to come back once conditions in the homeland get better.

However, the dishonest forces and intelligence agents of South Korea displeased with the north-south reconciliation have long employed every base means to take such border transgressors to South Korea so as to use them for a insidious political purpose. the same is true of the current case. To invent a pretext for the exile of Jang's family, they took in him to produce anti-DPRK "drawings" to be carried by South Korean publications and then warned that he and his family might be punished because of them after their deportation. Such anti-DPRK smear campaign has been launched at a time when the desire of all the Koreans for national reconciliation, unity and reunification is growing stronger with the first anniversary of the June 15 North-South Joint Declaration as a momentum. we cannot but maintain heightened vigilance over this dishonest action. This time china officially confirmed that there is a handful of border transgressors but no issue of refugee between the two countries. nevertheless, the UNHCR office in Beijing disguised those transgressors as "refugees", evidently at somebody's backstage manipulation and for a certain purpose. 

The UNHCR office pays no deep attention to millions of real refugees whose number is increasing everywhere in the world, but talks so loudly about an ordinary issue related to the DPRK where the people are united single-heartedly. Such unfair action and interference in its internal affair can never be tolerated. The DPRK does not persecute nor punish at random those who went wrong in the past. It is reported that Jang and his family have left china at present, and we will watch which is their final destination. The UNHCR office illegally dealt with the issue of those border transgressors, the issue beyond its authority, and thus laid obstacles in the process of the inter-Korean reconcilation and incited confrontation on the Korean peninsula. It should be entirely held accountable for it. 

Северная Корея обвиняет Южную Корею в содействии прибытию в страну северокорейских перебежчиков 

30 июня МИД СК по каналу Центрального Телеграфного Агентства СК(ЦТАК) обвинил ЮК в содействии прибытию в страну семерых северокорейских перебежчиков. МИД СК заявил, что южнокорейские разведчики содействовали проникновению семьи перебежчиков в представительство Верховного комиссара ООН по делам беженцев в Пекине. Северокорейская сторона заявила также, что южнокорейские группировки используют северокорейских перебежчиков в политических целях. Подчеркнув возможность обострения напряжённости на Корейском полуострове в связи с данным событием, официальный представитель МИД СК сообщил при этом, что семья Чан является не беженцами, а нелегальными перебежчиками, пересекшими границу. МИД СК обвинил Верховного комиссара ООН по делам беженцев в «несправедливом подходе» к урегулированию этого вопроса.

Семеро северокорейских перебежчиков, которые несколько дней находились в здании представительства Верховного комиссара ООН по делам беженцев в Пекине, 1 июля во второй половине дня прибыли в Сеул. После решения о их высылке из Китая в третью страну эта семья, состоящая из пожилой пары с дочерью, её мужем, двух внуков и племянника, 30 июня вечером самолётом через Сингапур прилетела в Манилу. Там северокорейские беглецы провели ночь в аэропорту, а потом вылетели в ЮК рейсом авиакомпании «Азиана». Как сообщают корреспонденты, все они здоровы и находятся в приподнятом настроении, сообщает RKI. 02.07.2001 (in Russian)

NORTH KOREA ACCUSES SOUTH OF MANIPULATING ASYLUM- SEEKING FAMILY

Agence France Presse reported that the DPRK accused the ROK on June 30 of granting a family from the DPRK asylum in order to derail reconciliation on the peninsula. The DPRK said that the ROK had encouraged the family of seven to enter the office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Beijing on Tuesday and to request asylum in the ROK. A DPRK foreign ministry spokesman told the official KCNA news agency, "To be honest Jang Kil-su and his family are not refugees but those who illegally crossed the border. The dishonest forces and intelligence agents of South Korea, displeased with the North-South reconciliation, have long employed every base means to take such border transgressions to South Korea so as to use them for an insidious political purpose." The spokesman warned that tension on the 
peninsula could increase. He said, "Such an anti-DPRK smear campaign has been launched at a time when the desire of all the Koreans for national reconciliation, unity and reunification is growing stronger. We cannot but maintain heightened vigilance over this dishonest action." He also dismissed fears expressed by the UNHCR that the family would face persecution if they returned to the DPRK. The spokesman condemned the UNHCR for acting beyond its mandate. ("NORTH KOREA ACCUSES SOUTH OF MANIPULATING ASYLUM- SEEKING FAMILY," Tokyo, 6/30/01) 

N. KOREAN DEFECTORS ARRIVE IN SEOUL, REUNITED WITH KIN

The Korea Herald reported that a family of seven DPRK defectors arrived in Seoul Saturday after more than two years in the PRC. Their arrival, which followed brief stopovers in Singapore and Manila, ended a weeklong diplomatic emergency among the involved governments on the fate of the family of 16-year-old Jang Gil-su. ROK officials said that Jang's family was reunited with three more family members, including Jang's brother, at an intelligence agency building in Seoul later in the day. The DPRK expressed its unhappiness with the handling of the asylum-seekers Saturday, accusing the ROK of taking the defectors to "use them for an insidious political purpose." It also warned that the move would damage the relationship between the two Koreas. (Kim Ji-ho, "N. KOREAN DEFECTORS ARRIVE IN SEOUL, REUNITED WITH KIN," Seoul, 06/29/01)

SEVEN NORTH KOREAN REFUGEES HAVE LEFT CHINA

Agence France Presse reported that UNHCR regional representative Colin Mitchell said that seven DPRK Nationals who spent three days at the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) office in Beijing left the PRC on Friday for a third country. Mitchell declined to say which country had accepted the family, or whether it was the ROK. The ROK had offered to give the group asylum. ("SEVEN NORTH KOREAN REFUGEES HAVE LEFT CHINA: UN," Beijing, 6/29/01)

CHINA COULD SEND N. KOREANS TO THIRD COUNTRY

The Korea Herald reported that the seven DPRK citizens who took refuge in a UN office in Beijing will likely be deported to a third country before coming to the ROK, according to ROK officials and news reports Thursday. "Among several options, the scheme best serves the interests of the governments concerned and China is well aware of this," a Foreign Ministry official said, requesting not to be named. "The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the Chinese government are currently discussing the plan," he said. Quoting PRC sources, the Yonhap News Agency also reported that the seven-member family of Jang Gil-su, 17, would be deported as early as next week or by July 13 at the latest. On that date, the International Olympic Committee is scheduled to select the host country of the 2008 Summer Olympics. Yonhap said that the PRC may deport the defectors to a third country in an effort to improve their chances of being awarded the 2008 Olympics. (Kim Ji-ho, "CHINA COULD SEND N. KOREANS TO THIRD COUNTRY," Seoul, 06/29/01)

China and U.N. Meet on North Korea Immigrants

New York Times 28 June 2001. By ELISABETH ROSENTHAL. BEIJING, June 27 Chinese and United Nations officials met today to negotiate the fates of seven illegal immigrants from North Korea who sneaked into the local office of the United Nations high commissioner for refugees on Tuesday, saying they would not leave until they had been granted political asylum and given safe passage to South Korea. The office of the high commissioner in Geneva announced on Tuesday its judgment that the seven qualify as political refugees. In Beijing today, the regional head of the refugee agency, Colin Mitchell, said that it was "absolutely unthinkable" that the seven would be forcibly returned to North Korea, where they face a high likelihood of persecution.

It is the Chinese government that will have the last word in the case, because the seven are on Chinese soil. Chinese officials made no public statements today on the case. On Tuesday, they reaffirmed their longstanding position that such immigrants were not political refugees who deserved a safe haven, but illegal economic immigrants who should be returned. The government almost certainly faces intense pressure both from North Korea, to send the family back, and from the United Nations, to help them flee. Although China has signed United Nations conventions that bar the forcible return of political refugees, it has once before disagreed with the high commissioner's determinations about North Koreans and returned them.

The new problem is especially delicate for China, torn between its old role as North Korea's closest ally and its newer one as a modern sophisticated country integrated in the international community. China, eager to bring the Olympics to Beijing in 2008, has worked hard to burnish its image, and the International Olympic Committee votes on a site in two weeks. The estimated 200,000 North Koreans who live illegally in China generally first crossed the border in search of food and basic supplies to allay the effects of severe food shortages that experts say have killed more than one million people in the last six years. 

Today, the seven asylum seekers, all members of an extended family who have been living underground in China since 1999, remained sequestered in the United Nations office in a compound owned by the Chinese government. United Nations officials said they had delivered bedding and food to the North Koreans. Some of the North Koreas smiled and waved at reporters from a second-floor window of the office. 

Fate of N. Korean Family Uncertain

 MARTIN FACKLER. The Associated Press Thursday, June 28, 2001; 9:08 AM   

BEIJING –– China said Thursday it was looking into the asylum plea of a North Korean family holed up for three days in a U.N. office in Beijing. The seven family members – a couple, two teen-agers, two grandparents and a nephew – have said they will not leave the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees office until they are given asylum in South Korea. A spokesman for the UNHCR said it was up to China to decide their fate. "We are just waiting for the Chinese to make a decision," Fernando del Mundo said. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Zhang Qiyue said China was in contact with the UNHCR. The Chinese side is still further verifying and investigating the matter," Zhang told reporters. The family members said they face persecution in their homeland. At least one of the children drew pictures of the family's flight from famine in North Korea that were published last year as a book in South Korea...

BEIJING FACES SERIOUS DILEMMA OVER NORTH KOREAN REFUGEES

The Korea Herald reported that ROK analysts said Wednesday that the PRC government faces a dilemma over the handling of the seven DPRK defectors in the Beijing office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) who are demanding political asylum in the ROK. If the past is any guide, chances are slim that the PRC will grant refugee status to the DPRK citizens who escaped from their country two years ago to avoid the severe famine, the analysts said. The PRC has not recognized DPRK defectors as refugees, insisting that most of them illegally crossed into the PRC to search for food or to avoid facing arrest for their crimes. Despite slim chances of the PRC accepting the DPRK family as refugees, ROK officials and experts raised the possibility that it may not deport them to the DPRK this time. "It is not easy for China to send them back to the North given its bid to host the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing," said a government official, speaking on condition of anonymity. (Shin Yong-bae, "BEIJING FACES SERIOUS DILEMMA OVER NORTH KOREAN REFUGEES," Seoul, 06/28/01)

 Граждане Северной Кореи попросили политического убежища у ООН

Семеро граждан Северной Кореи обратились в пекинское представительство ООН с просьбой предоставить им статус беженцев и разрешить перейти через южнокорейскую границу. Как заявляют представители японской правозащитной организации, корейцы - члены одной семьи - бежали из КНДР два года назад и все это время скрывались на территории Китая. Как сообщает BBC, сотрудники ООН пока никак не комментируют произошедшее. Полиция, охраняющая вход в представительство ООН, журналистов в здание не пропускает.

Японский репортер, сопровождавший семью Янг в представительство ООН, сообщил, что трое членов этой семьи уже находятся в Южной Корее. Они нелегально пересекли монгольскую границу. Однако китайские власти ранее арестовали двоих из семьи Янг и депортировали их в Северную Корею. Именно это решение и подтолкнуло оставшихся членов семьи просить политического убежища в представительстве ООН.

BBC сообщает также, что корейцы просят предоставить им статус беженцев, ссылаясь на опасность политического преследования. Дело в том, что они опубликовали серию рисунков, на которых изображены жертвы охватившего Северную Корею голода. В комментариях к ним руководство Северной Кореи характеризуется как диктаторы, уничтожившие миллионы ни в чем не повинных людей, сообщает LENTA.RU. 28.06.2001| (in Russian)

SOUTH KOREA ASKS CHINA TO FREE NORTH KOREANS

Agence France Presse reported that the ROK on Wednesday called on the PRC to give asylum to a family of seven DPRK Nationals who have sought refuge at a UN office in Beijing and demanded that they be given safe passage to the ROK. ROK Deputy Foreign Minister Choi Sung-hong told PRC Ambassador Wu Dawei that the ROK hoped that the PRC would respect the wishes of the DPRK family and let them go to the ROK. Choi was quoted as telling Wu, "We hope Beijing follows the spirit of humanitarianism and respects their free will in deciding their place of settlement." The ROK government also set up a special task force Wednesday to monitor discussions surrounding the family in Beijing. The seven DPRK Nationals entered the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) office in Beijing on the morning on June 26. They have demanded refugee status and safe passage to the ROK to escape persecution back home. Yonhap news agency quoted an ROK government official as saying the PRC had requested more time to study the situation before deciding on the asylum request. ("SOUTH KOREA ASKS CHINA TO FREE NORTH KOREANS," Seoul, 6/27/01)

HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF NORTH KOREANS SEEK NEW LIVES THROUGH CHINA

Agence France Presse reported that the ROK government estimates that between 10,000 and 30,000 DPRK refugees have fled to the PRC, while ROK activists put the figure at up to 200,000, and some estimates even reach as high as 300,000. Reports indicate that many DPRK Nationals have made multiple trips back and forth. Lee Young-hwa, a Tokyo-based representative of the North Korean People Urgent Action Network, said, "The Chinese government has recently stepped up its efforts to tighten border patrols after a request from the North Korean government. Its standard practice is to arrest North Korean refugees and immediately send them back to North Korea." ("HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF NORTH KOREANS SEEK NEW LIVES THROUGH CHINA," Beijing, 6/27/01)

N. Koreans Ask U.N. for Asylum Aid In Beijing. Family Pleads Case To Refugee Agency

By John Pomfret, Washington Post Foreign Service Wednesday, June 27, 2001; Page A22 

BEIJING, June 26 -- A family of seven North Koreans, including three children, entered the Beijing office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees today, pleading not to be forcibly returned to North Korea. Officials from the U.N. agency called on China not to return the group home before a petition for refugee status is processed. Despite being a signatory to international refugee conventions, China has ignored protests by the U.N. refugee agency in the past and forcibly repatriated North Koreans. U.N. officials said the family that came in today has a strong case. "Our office is saying that these people deserve asylum and they cannot be sent back to North Korea because if they were, they would be in danger," said Kris Janowski, a spokesman for the U.N. refugee agency in Geneva.

The family -- an elderly couple, their daughter, her husband and their three children -- arrived in Beijing from the port town of Dalian, according to Jiro Ishimaru, a Japanese freelance journalist who escorted them to Beijing. They have been living in China as refugees from the Stalinist government in North Korea since 1999, he said. The South Korean government announced it would grant the family asylum if China allowed them to leave...

A Portrait of True Grit: How an escapee was caught, tortured and escaped again

Newsweek 2 July 2001, By Ron Moreau. 

Park Choong Il is lucky to be alive, but is prepared to die. He keeps a small plastic bag filled with rat poison in his pocket. “I would rather kill myself than be taken back to prison in North Korea,” says the 23-year-old former street urchin, who recently escaped from Kim Jong Il’s dictatorship for the second time in 18 months. “I don’t even like to remember what happened to me. It’s too painful to think about”...

UN Negotiates With China Over Koreans

Associated Press, 27 June 2001, By MARTIN FACKLER.

U.N. officials said they negotiated Wednesday with China over the fate of seven North Korean asylum-seekers who took refuge in a U.N. office in Beijing. The seven family members entered the Beijing office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees on Tuesday and asked for asylum in South Korea, UNHCR regional chief Colin Mitchell told reporters. The seven - a couple, their two teen-age children, two grandparents and a nephew - told the United Nations they faced persecution if they return to their homeland. The UNHCR has said the seven deserve asylum because a book by at least one family member published last year in South Korea was critical of the North Korean communist regime... 

 NK Refugee Family Requests Assistance from the UNHCR in Bejing

Jang Gilsu along with his family of seven requested assistance from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Bejing Supervisor on June 26. According to the National Campaign for Clemency of the Gilsu family, the Gilsu family went to the offices of the UNHCR and divulged that they were North Korean refugees. They requested that the UNHCR assist in there flight from the North to South Korea. 

In January of 1999 Gilsu family escaped from North Korea and while in hiding a member of the family disclosed the fact that they were in such difficult straights that they ate human flesh in order to survive. A picture of public executions painted by one of the children in the Gilsu family was displayed in domestic newspapers February of 2001. At first the Gilsu family attempted to fly to Mongolia and then make their way to North Korea, but there attempt ended in utter failure. They have been on the run for over two years and have recently been arrested by the Chinese authorities, who said they have plans to repatriate the Gilsu family. The Chosun Ilbo 26 June 2001, By Kim Miyoung.  

Repatriated Defector Escapes North Korea for Second Time

The Chosun Ilbo, 22 June 2001 

In November 1999, seven North Korean defectors were caught by Russian frontier garrison, were handed over to China before being repatriated to North Korea. As a result of the passive response by the South Korean government and inhumane response by both the Chinese and Russian governments, seven former North Koreans who escaped from the North on November 4th 1999, were forcefully repatriated after seventy days . The picture above depicts former North Koreans residing in China.

One of the defectors, Kim Un-cheol, 23, is presently in hiding in a third country, having fled from North Korea in April 9, for the second time. In May, Kim granted an interview to the Monthly Chosun in China, and recalled the incident two years ago. He said that he and the others were sent to China's Hunchun on December 30, 1999 by the Russian frontier garrison and were repatriated to North Korea the same day by the Chinese authorities. After a short inspection by the army, the seven of them underwent a thorough interrogation for eight months at the underground prison in Chungjin, Hamgyungnamdo. Kim said that while imprisoned in an underground cell, he lost 20 kg and suffered from serious malnutrition. 

He explained that he was freed because of his physical weakness. Back in his hometown, he was sent to a mental hospital. On April 9 of this year, he fled to China and moved to a third country in June, thanks to the help from relief groups from South Korea and Japan. He is now looking to the day when he can set foot on South Korean soil. Kim compares his life in the underground cell to a living nightmare. He said that he underwent a number of interrogations which lasted two to three days, during which he wasn't allowed to sleep and was asked the same questions over and over. Kim said that he doesn't know what happened to the other six defectors, for they were all separated once they were handed over to the North Korean army by China. He confessed that when he was caught by the Russian frontier garrison, he lied that he was 13-years old, when in fact he was 21-years old. 

N. KOREA BLOCKS INT'L FOOD AID TO DISSENTERS

Japan Economic Newswire reported that Hong Kong's South China Morning Post quoted DPRK defectors on Friday saying that the DPRK is blocking international food aid to punish parts of the country that have seen antigovernment rebellions and protests. The paper said DPRK refugees who have crossed into the PRC have reported numerous protests and armed uprisings in the northeastern coastal provinces in the 1990s, including the cities of Hamhung in South Hamgyong Province and Chongjin, Hoeryong and Musan in North Hamgyong Province. The report quoted aid workers as confirming that far less food is being shipped to key industrial cities on the east coast, although the aid workers attributed it to transportation problems. Kathi Zellweger of Caritas-Hong Kong, which has been coordinating the Caritas Internationalis aid program for the DPRK since autumn 1995, was quoted as saying the east coast has always been more neglected than other parts of the country. The report also noted that very little is known about the food and health situation in many counties in northern mountainous provinces such as Jagang and Ryanggang, which have been closed to aid workers since the start of the famine, officially acknowledged in 1995. ("N. KOREA BLOCKS INT'L FOOD AID TO DISSENTERS: H.K. PAPER," 6/22/01)

REPORT OF THE THIRD INTERNATIONAL NGO CONFERENCE ON HUMANITARIAN ASSISTANCE TO NORTH KOREA: COOPERATIVE EFFORTS BEYOND FOOD AID

June 20, 2001. The third International Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) Conference on Humanitarian Assistance to North Korea was held in Yong In, Republic of Korea (ROK), from 17th to 20th June 2001. Attending the meeting were 47 delegates from 14 countries in addition to 120 participants from South Korea. Taking part were representatives of NGOs, United Nations agencies, and the Governments of South Korea, the Netherlands, New Zealand and Canada. During the opening ceremony, the conference heard a special address by ROK Minister of Unification Dong-Won Lim, who underlined the continued efforts for the easing of tensions and reconciliation on the Korean Peninsula.

'The Voice from the News Conference is not My Son's (Yu Tae-jun)'

The Chosun Ilbo 13 June 2001. In regards to the news conference broadcast on the Pyongyang Broadcasting concerning Yu Tae Joon (Yoo Thae-jun) on June 13, Ahn Jeong-suk, Yu's mother said, "that was not my son's voice." Yoo Tae-joon is a former North Korean who defected to the South in 1988. After being arrested in China by North Korean police, he was reported as being executed. Pyongyang Broadcasting later declared that he was alive and that he even participated in a news conference. Yu's mother (Ahn Jeong-suk) and his half-brother presently reside in South Korea. 

On Wednesday Mrs. Ahn held a news conference at the Heungsadan auditorium in Seoul in which she said that her son has a deep and husky voice and the voice of the person who spoke in the news conference was clear and high. A mother cannot fail to recognize her son's voice. She also said that Yu's uncle, who was mentioned during Yu's news conference on the 12th as tricking Yu into going to the South was actually killed during the Korean War.

China, Deported Forcibly at least 6000 NK Defectors to NK.

The Chosun Ilbo 16 June 2001. The ‘world refugees survey 2001’ released by USCR(US Committee for Refugees) reported that at least 6000 NK defectors were deported forcibly to North Korea last year. It added that up to 10 % of North Korean population that has died of food shortage since the mid 1990s. According to the ‘world refugees survey2001’ by USCR, deported defectors to North Korea have increased rapidly since the Chinese government had prescribed them as the displaced persons for food in January 1999. The ‘world refugees survey2001’ quoting the report written by Amnesty International added that 5000 North Korean defectors have been deported to North Korea through Jilin in China in June last year. 

Mssions’ Bid for North Korean Defectors near the Border

The Chosun Ilbo 18 June 2001. South China Morning Post reported that several Missions in an attempt to let escape north Korean from the hell were having ‘war’ with social security police from North Korea. It is allegedly reported that the Mission have been helping escape North Korean in cooperation with the ‘relief group for defectors’ which was organized near border, while the social security police have made a desperate effort to find them. The newspaper introduced that the social security police had raided the people in chapel last month and had dragged the children who had been witnessing off to the police station. When the people in chapel were listening to witness account from the several children, scores of police descended in civilian clothes and gave random blow to the Christians, then disappeared with the children in an instant. The ‘Open Doors ‘ founded as a Mission in 1956 revealed that at least a half million of Christians have existed in North Korea and have begun a religious life secretly, adding that around 540 underground Christian groups have been founded and hundreds of thousands Bibles have been smuggled into North Korea. North Korean government has dispatched more than hundred of thousand security agents to Yanbian to ferret out North Korean defectors. Inside North Korea, 11 Christians were executed publicly last December. The department of state added up temporarily that 400 Christians were executed in North Korea in 1999.

N. Korean Defectors Earn 36 percent of average South Korean Wage: Survey

By Kim Ji-ho The Korea Herald 18 June 2001. A household of North Korean defectors live on a monthly income of less than 1 million won ($770) on average, with 30 percent of them heavily reliant on the government's subsidy, a researcher said Saturday. According to Chang Hye-gyong, a fellow at the Korean Women's Development Institute (KWDI), the families' average earnings stood at 964,000 won, just 36 percent of the 2.58 million won that South Korean families residing in cities take home each month. Chang released the figures that are based on her survey of 65 households comprised of North Koreans who defected to the South between 1994 and 1999. About 36 percent of the households surveyed earn between 500,000 won and 1 million won each month, with 21.3 percent earning less than 500,000, according to the survey. The researcher said that 82.9 percent of the respondents felt their incomes were "insufficient." As to the major source of their income, 31.7 percent cited the government's subsidy, while 46.3 percent cited "husband's wage," 7.3 percent "wife's wage," and another 7.3 percent their lecture fees. Among 36 husbands and 43 wives surveyed, 12 and 29 were unemployed, respectively. More than 76 percent of those polled have family members still living in the North, a situation they said they feel insecure about, Chang said. "The survey showed that the North Korean defectors experience great difficulty when settling in the South, both economically and emotionally," Chang said. "The government should assist them with vocational education and psychological treatment, rather than just providing financial support," she added. 

Former N. Korean Yoo Tae-joon Holds News 

The Chosun Ilbo 12 June 2001. Pyongyang Broadcasting reported on Tuesday that Yoo Tae-joon, a former North Korean who defected to the South in 1988 has returned voluntarily to the North and held a news conference on this day. Yoo revealed that he was tricked into leaving the North by his half-brother and a South Korean spy agency. During the news conference he said that he realized the intentions of the South Korean National Intelligence Service and was brainwashed by South Korean officials upon entering the South. Yoo Tae-jun attended the news conference with his wife. 

"Executed" Yu Thae-jun urges defectors to South Korea to return to the road of reunification

Pyongyang, June 12 (KCNA) -- Those who betrayed the country and fled to South Korea should return to the fold of the nation and to the road of reunification, though belatedly, said Yu Thae Jun, former instructor of the Hamhung Coal Shop of the South Hamgyong Provincial Coal Management Bureau, at a press conference held here. He came back to the DPRK via a third country shortly ago from South Korea to which he was tricked by the South Korean "Intelligence Service" into going. As his case shows, the DPRK gives an opportunity of rebirth to those who committed any grave crimes in the past, not digging into their past, if they honestly admit and confess their wrongdoings, Yu said. 

He also noted: Those who betrayed the country and fled to South Korea should clearly realize that their joining the South Korean "Intelligence Service" in its moves against the DPRK as its agents will only add to the crimes already committed by them and precipitate their self-destruction. He elaborated on how he was taken to South Korea, what sort of examination and brain-washing he was forced to undergo by the Intelligence Service (IS) and the "Dae Sung Company", a camouflaged organ of the "defence security command," and what prompted him to come back to the DPRK. 

He continued: My betrayal of the country began with my visit to my mother's relatives in northeastern China after being tricked by Ri Kun Hyok, my half younger brother. My maternal uncle An Haeng Gyo, who was associated with the IS, lured me into boarding a ship bound for Pusan. What IS agents sought in tricking me into going to South Korea was to dream up the lie that there are "refugees" in the DPRK in a bid to tarnish the daily mounting international prestige of the DPRK, calm down the South Korean people's desire for reunification in alliance with communism and the north and fan up hostility towards it. I was told to engage myself in the anti-communist propaganda at the end of full-dress examination and brain-washing, but I refused to do so. Unable to live any longer in the rotten South Korean society, a society with no future, I made up my mind to come back to the DPRK come what may. 

Though I committed an indelible crime against the country I wanted to beg it to pardon me and have my body buried in my native home, after my death. this was my true feeling at that time. At the end of several months' pain-staking efforts to escape from the South Korean society I succeeded in doing so, taking advantage of "international marriage." Back to the fold of the DPRK, I visited a relevent organ to make a confession of my crime. He added that there remains his little Son Yu Yun ho in South Korea. At the press conference Yu and his wife Choe Jong Nam held that their son's going to South Korea was entirely a product of the anti-DPRK plot of the IS. The South Korean authorities should send him back without delay to the north to enable him to reunite with his parents, they urged. 

North Says Defector Back Home 

The Joongang Ilbo June 7, 2001.Yoo Tae Jun, a North Korean defector who has been missing since last June, was confirmed Thursday to have returned to North Korea. Radio Pyongyang reported that Mr. Yoo "returned to the bosom of his homeland when the opportunity arose to escape to a third country, having realized that he could not live outside the people's republic." Mr. Yoo defected in November 1998 with his son. In June 2000 he left for China reportedly in an attempt to get his wife out of North Korea. He was not heard from after his departure. "I cannot believe that Tae-jun returned to North Korea voluntarily," said Ahn Jeong-suk, Mr. Yoo's mother. She added that she would try and look into the rumor that he was taken to Pyongyang and executed.

US court postpones case review of alleged North Korean defectors 

BBC Monitoring Service - United Kingdom 7 June 2001. Los Angeles, 6 June: The US Immigration Court in San Diego postponed a case review slated Wednesday [6 June] for two alleged North Korean defectors. "The immigration court has delayed the deportation review until early August for unspecified reasons, so I have put off filing the applications for political asylum that I planned to make on their behalf today (Wednesday)," said Kim Yoo-jung, the lawyer counseling the two pro bono. But chances are high the two defectors, identified only by their family names "Han" and Kim," will win political asylum because the US court accepted "North Korean" as their nationality in the subpoena, the lawyer said. " I'll gather more convincing material proving their nationality in the coming months," the lawyer said, adding that more than one year will be required for the two to get political asylum. 

The 33-year-old Han and 31-year-old Kim were nabbed while crossing into the United States illegally across the US-Mexican border in March. Both promptly claimed they were North Korean defectors. They were paroled from an illegal alien detention centre in San Diego after posting 1,500 US dollars in bail each 31 May. Han and Kim insist they fled from the North to China in 1995 to escape the dire economic situations in the socialist country and decided to go to the United States for fear of deportation back to the North. The alleged defectors are staying at a Korean church here. It is the second time that North Koreans have been caught illegally entering the United States, following a 37-year-old North Korean woman, named Kim Sun-hee, who was released on parole 8 May from a detention centre after asking for political asylum. 

Seven North Korean defectors arrive in South 

BBC Monitoring Service - United Kingdom; Jun 8, 2001. Seven North Korean defectors have recently arrived in the country via a third country, the National Intelligence Service (NIS) said Friday [8 June]. Intelligence investigators are questioning the group, including a 62-year-old woman with an assumed name of Ma Jong-sook, about their identity and why they fled from the North. Hailing from South Hamgyong and North Hwanghae provinces, they escaped because they could not endure the hardships workers face in the North, NIS officials said. 

Twelve North Korean defectors arrive in Seoul

Text of report in English by South Korean news agency Yonhap Seoul, 31 May: Twelve North Koreans who fled their country have recently arrived in Seoul and are being questioned on their motives for defection, the National Intelligence Service (NIS) said Wednesday [30 May]. Most of the defectors allegedly left their homes between 1997 and 1999 due to hunger. Among them are factory workers, primary school teachers and a student, NIS officials said. A total of 188 North Koreans escapees have come to South Korea so far this year. BBC Monitoring Service - United Kingdom, 31 May 2001

The Lives of N. Koreans Living on the Boarder of China have Improved

The Chosun Ilbo, 1 June 2001

Recently, the quality of life of the residence of North Korean towns on the Chinese border, such as Sinuiju City in North Hamgyung Province have noticeably improved. For instance, the style of clothes has become varied and number and quality of household appliances has also increased. According to government authorities who relayed testimony provided by a former North Korean on the May 31, in areas where it is comparatively easy to make money, near the Chinese boarder, most of the houses have television sets and there is also a recent trend to replace black and white television sets with color ones. In addition, "Fashion in North Korea first passes through the border areas and then spreads out through Pyongyang and other large cities," added the government official. "Recently women from these areas who have visited China bring the fashions and start new fads when they arrive back into North Korea," said the official. As a result the hair styles and clothes in these areas have experienced a noticeable change.