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CHINA’S REPATRIATION OF NORTH KOREAN 

REFUGEES 

HEARING 

BEFORE THE

CONGRESSIONAL-EXECUTIVE 

COMMISSION ON CHINA 

ONE HUNDRED TWELFTH CONGRESS 

SECOND SESSION 

MARCH 5, 2012 

Printed for the use of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China 

( 

Available via the World Wide Web: http://www.cecc.gov 
CONGRESSIONAL-EXECUTIVE COMMISSION ON CHINA 

LEGISLATIVE BRANCH COMMISSIONERS 

House Senate 

CHRISTOPHER H. SMITH, New Jersey, 

Chairman 

FRANK WOLF, Virginia 

DONALD A. MANZULLO, Illinois 

EDWARD R. ROYCE, California 

TIM WALZ, Minnesota 

MARCY KAPTUR, Ohio 

MICHAEL HONDA, California 

SHERROD BROWN, Ohio, Cochairman 

MAX BAUCUS, Montana 

CARL LEVIN, Michigan 

DIANNE FEINSTEIN, California 

JEFF MERKLEY, Oregon 

SUSAN COLLINS, Maine 

JAMES RISCH, Idaho 

EXECUTIVE BRANCH COMMISSIONERS 

SETH D. HARRIS, Department of Labor 

MARIA OTERO, Department of State 

FRANCISCO J. SA ́ NCHEZ, Department of Commerce 

KURT M. CAMPBELL, Department of State 

NISHA DESAI BISWAL, U.S. Agency for International Development 

PAUL B. PROTIC, Staff Director 

LAWRENCE T. LIU, Deputy Staff Director 

(II) 
(III) 

CO N T E N T S 

STATEMENTS

Page 

Opening statement of Hon. Chris Smith, a U.S. Representative from New 

Jersey; Chairman, Congressional-Executive Commission on China ................ 1 

Royce, Hon. Edward, a U.S. Representative from California; Member, Congressional-Executive Commission on China ...................................................... 3 

Scholte, Suzanne, President, Defense Forum Foundation; Chairman and 

Founding Member, North Korea Freedom Coalition ......................................... 5 

Han, Songhwa, former North Korean refugee detained in China, repatriated 

to North Korea and detained in North Korea .................................................... 7 

Jo, Jinhye, former North Korean refugee detained in China, repatriated to 

North Korea and detained in North Korea ........................................................ 11 

Kumar, T., Director for International Advocacy, Amnesty International USA .. 21 

Scarlatoiu, Greg, Executive Director, Committee for Human Rights in North 

Korea ..................................................................................................................... 22 

Horowitz, Michael, Senior Fellow, Hudson Institute ............................................ 25 

PREPARED STATEMENTS

Scholte, Suzanne ...................................................................................................... 34 

Han, Songhwa .......................................................................................................... 39 

Jo, Jinhye ................................................................................................................. 40 

Kumar, T. ................................................................................................................. 42 

Scarlatoiu, Greg ....................................................................................................... 46 

Smith, Hon. Chris .................................................................................................... 47 

SUBMISSION FOR THE RECORD

Written Statement of Roberta Cohen, Chair, Committee for Human Rights 

in North Korea and Non-Resident Fellow, the Brookings Institution, on 

‘‘China’s Repatriation of North Korean Refugees,’’ dated March 5, 2012 ....... 50 

(1) 

CHINA’S REPATRIATION OF NORTH KOREAN 

REFUGEES 

MONDAY, MARCH 5, 2012 

CONGRESSIONAL-EXECUTIVE

COMMISSION ON CHINA, 

Washington, DC. 

The hearing was convened, pursuant to notice, at 2:37 p.m., in 

room 2118, Rayburn House Office Building, Representative Chris 

Smith, Chairman, presiding. 

Also present: Representative Edward R. Royce. 

OPENING STATEMENT HON. CHRIS SMITH, A U.S. REPRESENTATIVE FROM NEW JERSEY; CHAIRMAN, CONGRESSIONAL–EXECUTIVE COMMISSION ON CHINA 

Chairman SMITH. The Commission will come to order. Thank you 

all for being here, and good afternoon. 

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 the 1967 Protocol to which 

China has acceded. 

The international community—especially the United Nations, the 

Obama administration, and the U.S. Congress—must insist that 

China, at long last, honor its treaty obligations, end its egregious 

practice of systematic refoulement, or be exposed as hypocrites. 

Article 33 of the Convention and Protocol Relating to the Status 

of Refugees couldn’t be more clear: 

Prohibition of Expulsion or Return (‘‘Refoulement’’): No Contracting State shall 

expel or return (‘‘refouler’’) a refugee in any manner whatsoever to the frontiers of 

territories where his life or freedom would be threatened on account of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion. 

Today’s hearing underscores an emergency that begs an immediate remedy. Lives are at risk. The North Korean refugees—disproportionately women—face death or severe sexual abuse and torture unless they get immediate protection. China has a duty to protect. 

In recent weeks we have learned that Chinese authorities have 

reportedly detained dozens—perhaps as many or more than 40— 

North Korean refugees. North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong-un, has 

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. Frankly, I believe him. 
2 

It is unclear whether or not the Obama administration’s food aid 

to North Korea—some 240,000 metric tons per year—contains any 

conditions or links to the refugees. It should. 

Forced repatriation by China of North Koreans, as we all know, 

isn’t new. But that doesn’t make what is about to happen to dozens 

of new victims any less offensive. According to testimony submitted 

today by Roberta Cohen, chair of the Committee for Human Rights 

in North Korea and a non-resident Senior Fellow at The Brookings 

Institution: 

China has forcibly returned tens of thousands over the past 

two decades. Most, if not all, have been punished in North 

Korea. According to testimonies and reports received by the 

Committee for Human Rights, the punishment has included 

beatings, torture, detention, forced labor, sexual violence, and 

in the case of women suspected of becoming pregnant in China, 

forced abortions or infanticide. 

For the record, I would note that since 2005, I have chaired four 

congressional hearings that focused in whole or in part on the 

plight of North Korean refugees and China’s ongoing violations of 

international law. 

The Chinese Government claims that North Korean refugees are 

illegal economic migrants, not refugees. Furthermore, the Chinese 

Government continues its policy of repatriating North Koreans in 

China according to a bilateral repatriation agreement that requires 

it to return all border crossers. 

As we will hear today, in doing so, China is in clear violation of 

its obligations of international law. Again, these are obligations 

that it freely entered into. Under international law and standards, 

these detained refugees are entitled to protection if there is a wellfounded reason to believe that they will be persecuted upon return. 

There are documented accounts, as well as strong evidence. We 

know that the persecution exists and what awaits them if they are 

forced to return. 

North Korea is certainly at fault. It might also be stated that 

China has contributed to the humanitarian crisis through its policy 

of gendercide, the killing of baby girls by forced abortion, or infanticide. China’s one-child-per-couple policy has led to the worst gender disparity in any nation in history, and that is directly connected to the issue that we probe today. 

According to the 2011 Commission’s report, NGOs and researchers estimate that as many as 70 percent of the North Korean refugees in China are women, and some researchers have estimated 

that 9 out of every 10 North Korean women in China are trafficked, usually into sex trafficking. 

In the past we have heard in my subcommittee from women who 

had been forced into trafficking. In one case we heard from a 

woman whose daughter crossed the border and then she and her 

daughter went looking for the missing daughter and sister, only to 

be forced into sex trafficking themselves. They testified before our 

committee and told of their harrowing experience and the courage 

that they had to overcome it. 

The Chinese Government needs to change and the time has come 

now for us to clearly and unambiguously raise the stakes. It is time 

for a change. 
3 

Our focus today is on China’s role and responsibility in solving 

this problem. At this time we call on China to uphold its international obligations and take immediate steps to end this cruel, 

barbaric policy of sending North Koreans back to persecution or 

death. 

China must conform to international norms and allow these refugees safe passage to the Republic of Korea, or grant them immediate asylum. And we ask the Chinese Government to take all 

steps necessary to meet the requirements of the convention relating 

to the status of refugees and its protocol. 

And the United Nations. It is time for the United Nations to step 

up and stop writing just short comments and commentaries on this, 

and its leaders, including the head of the UN High Commissioner 

for Refugees [UNHCR] and others, need to speak boldly about what 

is about to happen to these refugees. 

Finally, I want to thank all of our witnesses for being here at 

this emergency hearing. It is a special honor to welcome Ms. Han 

Songhwa and her daughter, Jo Jinhye, former North Korean refugees who are here to share their personal accounts of detention, 

hardship, and loss. I am sure that their reflections and observations will deepen our understanding of this issue and strengthen 

our resolve that China must immediately address this self-made 

crisis. 

I would like to yield to my good friend and colleague, Representative Royce, for any comments he might have. 

STATEMENT OF HON. EDWARD R. ROYCE, A U.S. REPRESENTATIVE FROM CALIFORNIA; MEMBER, CONGRESSIONAL–EXECUTIVE COMMISSION ON CHINA 

Representative ROYCE. Thank you very much, Chairman Smith. 

Thank you for holding this hearing. 

This is an emergency. The Chinese Government is set to repatriate many North Korean refugees, so there is an urgency to this 

hearing. There is an urgency to Congress acting. We are, for those 

of us who have been in North Korea, as I have, or who have interviewed those who have survived coming over the border and being 

repatriated or have had family members—I remember talking, 

speaking with one young woman whose brother attempted to cross 

with her and he was caught. He died by firing squad. 

Speaking to Hwang Jang Yop, who was the Propaganda Minister 

from North Korea, he told us the stories about the administration 

in North Korea making the decision that they would not allow food 

to go to the ‘‘No Go’’ areas; that close to 2 million people had 

starved to death because the North Korean regime wanted to build 

up its nuclear program, its ICBM [intercontinental ballistic missile] 

program, and made a calculated decision to allow people to starve 

and felt that people in those areas could not be depended upon, 

they were suspect in those regions. So they allowed them to starve 

to death. 

You have reports by the State Department and NGOs that we 

are going to study today that show a very grim picture of what is 

happening in North Korea, a total denial of political and civil and 

religious liberties. We know that. But the severe physical abuse 

that is visited on those who are simply suspected or accused of not 
4 

being in step with the regime, anyone who is accused of violating 

a restriction or a law—you have a system of concentration camps 

akin to the Soviet Gulag system. 

The photographs I have seen are very reminiscent to the ones 

taken in Nazi Germany. You have 200,000 people in these camps, 

most of them with no hope of ever getting out. There are a few who 

have managed to get out, to escape over into China. We have interviewed them about the conditions, and they are horrifying. 

So this dismal state has led to a large number of North Koreans, 

particularly women, trying to escape to take their children out of 

this environment, perhaps as many as 300,000. They have fled into 

China and there they seek food or work and resettlement to South 

Korea. Seventy-five percent of these refugees are women. Up to 90 

percent, according to some sources, end up being trafficked. 

In northeast China, North Korean refugees live in constant fear 

of being rounded up by Chinese authorities. Why is that? It’s because, despite its international obligations, China does not follow 

that international law and it forcibly repatriates North Korean refugees. This, for many, is effectively a death sentence. 

Why is that so? Because leaving North Korea is considered a 

crime by the regime and it is punishable by execution or being 

worked to death in the Gulag. There are new reports that Kim 

Jung-Eun has issued a ‘‘shoot to kill’’ order to North Korean guards 

patrolling the border, another reason why this hearing is important 

today. 

Sadly, thousands—thousands—of North Korean children have 

been abandoned or orphaned in the Chinese countryside. They are 

threatened by starvation and disease. That is why I introduced 

H.R. 1464, which calls on the Secretary of State to develop a strategy to facilitate the adoption of North Korean children by U.S. citizens. Many here have supported this legislation. 

China’s mistreatment of refugees is not new. What is new today 

is the intensity. As part of its stepped up repatriation campaign, 

Chinese authorities have established detention centers along the 

border with North Korea to accommodate greater numbers of North 

Koreans being held there. 

This is what I want to tell you about, because those associated 

with humanitarian groups who assist North Korean refugees are 

also being targeted at this time by these Chinese officials. And by 

the way, that includes U.S. citizens. There is one in particular that 

I know who was held in one of these facilities; we worked to get 

him out. 

American businessman Steve Kim is another example of a man 

who spent four years in prison, and his supposed crime was helping 

North Korean refugees who had escaped their homeland and were 

hiding in China. They hoped to make their way to South Korea. 

And remember, this is the international agreement that China is 

under, to assist in helping those people escape. 

But Mr. Kim recounted here on Capitol Hill, ‘‘When I was in 

prison I saw North Korean defectors who I shared the prison cell 

with beaten to a pulp by prison guards.’’ That was before they were 

sent back to North Korea. That is the conditions that exist in 

China. 
5 

The human rights situation there, there is only one word for it: 

It is a nightmare. It demands the international community getting 

engaged to reverse this, and these human rights abuses demand 

our attention here in Congress. I thank the Commission for holding 

this timely hearing. 

Chairman SMITH. Thank you very much, Mr. Royce. 

I would like to now welcome our first very distinguished panel, 

beginning with Suzanne Scholte, who is president of the Defense 

Forum Foundation. Ms. Scholte hosted the first North Korean defectors ever to speak out in the United States back in 1997, and 

since that time has hosted over 70 visits of defectors, from highranking officials to survivors of the North Korean political prison 

camps and victims of human trafficking in China. She is also the 

chairwoman of the North Korea Freedom Coalition and vice chair 

of the Committee for Human Rights in North Korea. 

We will then hear from Ms. Songhwa Han, who escaped to China 

in the mid-1990s and later returned through North Korea, where 

she was imprisoned and tortured. She escaped to China again several years later with her children. 

While living as a refugee in China she encountered forced marriage, domestic abuse, forced labor, detention, official beatings, and 

eventual repatriation. Ms. Han received protection with the 

UNHCR in 2006 and asylum in the United States in 2008. 

We will then hear from Ms. Jinhye Jo, Ms. Han’s daughter, a 

former North Korean refugee detained in China, repatriated to 

North Korea and detained in North Korea. Jo received protection 

with the UNHCR in 2006 and asylum in the United States in 2008. 

Since arriving in the United States she has been an active advocate 

on behalf of other North Korean refugees still living in China. 

Ms. Scholte, if you could begin. 

STATEMENT OF SUZANNE SCHOLTE, PRESIDENT, DEFENSE 

FORUM FOUNDATION; CHAIRMAN AND FOUNDING MEMBER, 

NORTH KOREA FREEDOM COALITION 

Ms. SCHOLTE. Congressman Smith, Congressman Royce, I want 

to thank you deeply for responding to this urgent crisis facing 

North Korean refugees in China today. 

Congressman Smith, in September you hosted a hearing with 

North Korean defector Kim Hye-sook, who is the longest-serving 

survivor of the North Korean political prisoner camps. She spent 

28 years in Bukchang Political Prison Camp. 

I mention her today because the reason she was sent to jail at 

the age of 13, with her entire family, and sent to Bukchang where 

her brother and sister are still being imprisoned, was simply because her grandfather allegedly had escaped to South Korea. She 

is a living example of how the regime retaliates against three generations of a family if just one family member flees North Korea. 

As draconian as these measures have been, the current situation 

is even more critical for the North Korean refugees recently arrested in China. Most face execution for three reasons. First of all, 

Kim Jong-un, as you mentioned, announced in December that the 

entire family and relatives should be annihilated if any family 

member fled during the 100-day mourning period following Kim 

Jong-il’s death. 
6 

Second, among the group of North Koreans arrested in February 

are refugees who have family members who defected to South 

Korea. In fact, the parents of a 19-year-old girl arrested in China 

have pleaded that their daughter be allowed to commit suicide 

rather than be repatriated back to North Korea. There is also a 71- 

year-old mother who has a daughter in South Korea, a 16-year-old 

whose brother is in South Korea, and a mother and an infant. 

These refugees are trying desperately to be reunited with their 

family in South Korea. 

Third, China is providing information to North Korea about the 

refugees it has arrested, informing the North Korea security agents 

if they were trying to flee to South Korea. Because of this collusion 

the Chinese Government is complicit in premeditated murder because it knows that these refugees, when repatriated to North 

Korea, face execution. 

By refusing to honor its international treaty commitments and 

colluding with North Korea to repatriate these refugees, China has 

created a violent environment where 80 percent of North Korean 

females are subjected to human trafficking and North Korean 

agents are allowed to freely roam around China, assassinating humanitarian workers and hunting down refugees. 

The Chinese Government wants to be seen as a responsible international leader, yet it refuses to allow the UNHCR access to these 

refugees, but has no problem allowing North Korean spies and assassins free reign. This collusion with North Korea proves most 

definitely that China cannot hide behind its claim that these refugees are economic migrants. 

As China knows full well and has known for decades, when they 

force North Koreans back to North Korea they face certain torture, 

certain imprisonment, and increasingly, execution for fleeing their 

homeland. China has decided that they should be executed rather 

than reunited with their families. 

According to Kim Sung-min of Free North Korea Radio, China 

began separating North Korean defectors into two groups based on 

whether they were trying to escape to South Korea, starting in at 

least 2008. We suspect this was part of the crackdown before the 

Beijing Olympics, as China greatly feared that the world would 

come to know about their cruel treatment of North Korean refugees. 

North Korean defectors Ju Seong-ha, a reporter with Dong-a Ilbo, 

and Kim Yong-hwa, have described how China uses a different-colored stamp on the interrogation papers for those refugees attempting to get to South Korea, the information it provides to North 

Korea when the refugees are repatriated. China is literally marking these refugees for death. 

We need to convince China that it is in their best interests to reverse their repatriation policy and work with the international 

community to resolve this crisis. In fact, China’s action is not only 

causing this refugee crisis, but prolonging it. 

Here is why: China fears an increasing flow of refugees, if it allows refugees safe passage to South Korea, but China’s actions are 

ensuring that there will always be refugees by relieving Kim Jongun of taking any measures that would improve conditions in North 

Korea. North Koreans are fleeing North Korea out of desperation. 
7 

They know the considerable risk they are taking and most North 

Koreans who have fled desire to return to North Korea once conditions improve. China has long desired that the Kim regime adopt 

reform. By forcibly sending fleeing North Koreans back to North 

Korea, China relieves any pressure for Kim to improve conditions 

in North Korea so the citizens do not want to flee. 

Second, China’s future will be much better toward people if it 

works with South Korea rather than kowtowing to this dictator in 

North Korea. The two countries celebrate the 20th anniversary of 

their diplomatic ties this year and enjoy a robust trade relationship. South Korean culture is very popular in China, and many 

Chinese tourists travel to South Korea. Working with South Korea 

on this issue will have a positive benefit to their future relationship 

because it is inevitable that Korea one day will be unified. 

Third, all the remedies for resolving this issue are immediately 

at hand to ensure no burden on China, including the presence of 

the UNHCR in Beijing; a humanitarian network, and a strong commitment from South Korea and the United States to help resettle 

refugees. 

Finally, China needs to be reminded of what this regime really 

thinks of the Chinese people. Kim Jong-il had a long-established 

policy known as ‘‘Block the Yellow Wind,’’ as he was resistant to 

adopting any China-style reforms. 

His racist contempt for the Chinese people was evident when he 

ordered his border guards to beat the bellies of pregnant North Korean females who had been repatriated because their unborn babies were half Chinese. This is a perfect opportunity for China to 

work with the international community rather than kowtow to a 

brutal dictatorship, frequently cited as one of the world’s worst regimes. 

I want to close by recognizing one of your colleagues, 

Assemblywoman Park Sun-young of the Korean National Assembly, who began a hunger strike in Seoul, calling for China not to 

repatriate these refugees but allow them safe passage to South 

Korea. This brave woman collapsed on Friday and was rushed to 

the hospital. We urge all parliamentarians and governments 

around the world to join her in calling upon China to end their brutal repatriation policy and stop sending North Koreans to their 

death. 

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 

Chairman SMITH. Ms. Scholte, thank you very much for your eloquent statement and for your ongoing and absolutely tenacious advocacy on behalf of North Korean human rights in general, and refugees in particular. So, thank you so very much. 

I would like to now ask Ms. Han if she would present her testimony to the Commission. 

STATEMENT OF SONGHWA HAN, FORMER NORTH KOREAN 

REFUGEE DETAINED IN CHINA, REPATRIATED TO NORTH 

KOREA, AND DETAINED IN NORTH KOREA 

Ms. HAN. Hello, my name is Songhwa Han, and I came to the 

United States with my two daughters in 2008 as refugees, following the passage of the North Korean Human Rights Act by the 

U.S. Congress in 2004. 
8 

For the lowest class people in North Korea, they have a most 

desperate and earnest plea. That plea is to be freed and liberated 

to freedom and human rights from the worst suffering and pain of 

starvation. 

I want to thank the U.S. Government for hearing our plea, for 

hope, and giving us freedom. I want to just describe very briefly my 

reasons for leaving North Korea. 

I escaped with my two daughters from North Korea for the first 

time in 1998. Before defection from North Korea, my family consisted of eight people. My mother and my two-month-old newborn 

baby son died from starvation, and my oldest daughter, who was 

18 years old at the time, left home to find food and never came 

back. To this day I do not know of her whereabouts or what happened to her. 

I had another five-year-old son who I had to leave at an acquaintance’s home before I escaped to China. I promised my son, 

if you just sleep for five nights I will be back with rice and candy 

and I will come back to get you. 

Afterward, my five-year-old son, who was suffering from malnutrition, was kicked out of the house I had put him in and died 

while waiting and crying out, ‘‘Mommy, sister, when are you coming back? ’’ He cried and cried, and died in a grass field. This news 

was delivered to me by someone I had hired to go and bring my 

son to China. 

My husband was arrested and sent to jail for the crime of crossing the Tumen River and going to China and bringing back a sack 

of rice, when what he had done was simply to go to China to find 

food for his children and save them, who had slowly over time 

grown weaker and weaker from starvation. He died while incarcerated in prison from the severe punishment he received. 

Afterward, my family was labeled as anti-state traitors for having crossed over to China and the North Korean police and the 

Bowibu, or the national or domestic security agents, came to look 

for us in our countryside village home. They came to kick us out 

of the village, for me to take the remaining family members and 

move away to another place. 

Our family had devoted ourselves to the Party and to the dear 

leader, but contrary to the police in the United States, instead of 

protecting the citizens the North Korean police yelled and threatened to burn down our house if we did not move out. 

I could no longer beg for help or for mercy, and I decided right 

then and there rather than staying put and starve to death, even 

if we died trying to go find our way to freedom, I decided to seek 

out freedom. 

My one sole wish was to feed my children just one meal of white 

rice, and decided that I would never suffer from starvation or be 

unfairly mistreated, and therefore took my seven-year-old daughter, who was malnourished and was not growing up properly, put 

her in a sack and carried her, and held my older daughter’s hand 

and leaned on one another and each other and crossed the waisthigh currents of the Tumen River and safely escaped from North 

Korea. 

After escaping to China and living in fear for almost 10 years, 

during that period we were forcibly repatriated four times. During 
9 

one of those forced repatriations, I would just like to share about 

my experience from the time I was forcibly repatriated during the 

summer of 2003. 

First of all, once a North Korean defector was handed over by the 

Chinese police to the North Korean Bowibu, or the security agents, 

one had to become an animal. 

Second, the defectors were repatriated or ordered by the North 

Korean guards that, ‘‘You are all dogs from now on, so therefore 

lower your head and move around by only looking at the ground.’’ 

The prisoners are handcuffed and chained to one another, and if 

the slightest noise is made the prisoners are beaten with rifle 

butts. 

After the interrogation is finished at the Bowibu, the prisoners 

are taken to a reformed hard labor camp, where I was sent. We 

were forced to work from 5 o’clock in the morning until late at 

night, and after dragging our dead-tired bodies back from work we 

were only giving a fist-sized corn/rice ball to eat, and until 11 

o’clock in the evening we were required to participate in self-reflection and self-criticism group meetings and forced to sing patriotic 

martial songs. 

We would then spend the rest of our night sitting in front of one 

another and picking off the ticks and lice from our clothes and our 

hair, and then sleep for a few hours, and then wake up early in 

the morning to the wake-up call and then get dragged out for more 

labor. These types of punishments were given out to misdemeanor 

criminals. 

These punishments were repeated for as long as six months, and 

like men who would die from malnutrition and starvation and the 

women prisoners who collapsed from fatigue and could not get up 

again, both women and men alike had to carry heavy logs up to 

the mountainside. If a prisoner became injured there was no recourse for medicine or for medical care. 

In the wintertime there was no proper footwear available, so 

pieces of cloth and strings would be used to cover up the feet. 

While working in the snow, many would come down with frostbite, 

but we could not stop work and had to continue working, and also 

continue to work the following day. 

Sometimes the men had to shovel human waste from the latrines 

with their own bare hands. The women prisoners would then carry 

the human waste, mixed with dirt, on their backs and carry the 

load into the fields. So for the crime of going to China for only 

wanting to live and not die from starvation, North Korean refugees 

who are repatriated by China become prisoners and end up suffering under crushing labor, doing construction work or coal mining 

work, and become sick or injured, or worse, suffer in misery and 

pain and die while working under horrendous conditions. The 

wretched and poor North Korean refugees continue to suffer like 

this, and the misery is never ending. 

For the crime of betraying the nation, in the Bowibu, the domestic or national security agency prisons, the North Korean refugee 

men who were forcibly repatriated were beaten with steel pipes 

and countless people died from beatings inflicted on them, where 

arms and legs were broken. 
10 

I, myself, was beaten in the head for the crime of having gone 

over to China, and I was beaten so severely that my skull still has 

pieces of bone imbedded in my head. Besides this injury, because 

I was beaten so severely and punched around so much, my eyes became swollen and one of my eardrums ruptured. To this day I am 

hard of hearing in one ear. 

While we were suffering from thirst, there was no water to drink 

and the prisoners would end up drinking foul water from the water 

tanks or wells and come down with colitis, and die without any 

care or treatment given to them. 

North Korean refugees, if they are miraculously able to survive 

and be released from prison or from the reform labor camps, will 

attempt to escape from North Korea even if it means death if 

caught again. 

Through this hearing today I earnestly plead and beg of you, refugees of other countries have been accepted in the United States 

numbering in the tens of thousands of people or more. But after 

the North Korean Human Rights Act passed in 2004, only about 

130 North Korean refugees have been granted asylum in the 

United States. 

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 and desiring freedom in the free world, whether 

it be South Korea or the United States, desire to be rescued and 

accepted into freedom. 

If 100 North Korean refugees were accepted after the Human 

Rights Act passed we would have more than 1,000 North Korean 

refugees in the United States by now. Those who long to go to the 

United States and who travel to Thailand and were incarcerated in 

the detention camps in Thailand, who long to go to the United 

States, because the wait period was so long, waiting for many 

months, they decided to change their destination to South Korea 

and ended up going to South Korea instead. 

I sincerely hope that the United States will accept the North Korean refugees, like South Korea. Being accepted into the United 

States is the wish of many North Korean refugees in earnest, and 

on their behalf I make this request to all of you here today. 

I pray that for those North Korean refugees who are in the period of uncertainty, that you will deal with China intensely and 

help rescue the North Korean refugees in China right now. Please 

help us, the North Korean refugees. Thank you. 

Chairman SMITH. Ms. Han, thank you very much for your testimony. You and your daughter are surely not just victims and survivors, but you are women of courage who bring a message to 

Washington and to the world that it must hear. You talked about 

the misery being never ending. You talked about the unspeakable 

cruelty. The whole world needs to hear your message. So, I thank 

you so very much for your being here today and bravely offering 

your commentary. 

I would like to now ask Ms. Jo if she would present her testimony. 
11 

STATEMENT OF JINHYE JO, FORMER NORTH KOREAN REFUGEE DETAINED IN CHINA, REPATRIATED TO NORTH 

KOREA, AND DETAINED IN NORTH KOREA 

Ms. JO. Hello. My name is Jinhye Jo, and I am a North Korean 

defector. I want to first extend my greeting and deep appreciation 

to God, the U.S. Government, and the American people for allowing 

me the freedom to speak before you at this place, and also for the 

fact that I live in America, a place which is like heaven to me. 

In North Korea, one cannot dream of going to Pyongyang freely 

unless you were a part of the inner circle of Kim Jong-il. However, 

I am now living in the Washington, DC area, the capital of the 

United States, and I am here today to make an earnest request. 

With the desire to fill our hungry stomachs, we escaped to China 

to seek the freedom that my mother spoke of. However, what 

awaited us were the Chinese police and the security officials who 

were obsessed with searching for, and arresting, North Korean defectors and human traffickers who did not see a mother of two 

daughters, but rather a source of money-making. 

My younger sister and I were young and naive, and were just so 

glad to be able to eat white rice for a meal. But we always lived 

in fear, that one morning when we woke up our mother would be 

taken somewhere to be sold or that she would abandon us and 

leave us. 

By chance, I happened to find God and became a Christian at a 

small countryside church, and through the grace of God and His 

protection, even though I was forcibly repatriated four times to 

North Korea, I did not die from beatings, I did not die from starvation, and I was able to survive and live. 

The North Korean Bowibu, or national security agency, officials 

strip-search the defector women who are sent back, searching every 

article of clothing to look for hidden money or contraband. If nothing of value is found among the clothing, the prisoners who are 

standing are told to put their hands on their head and forced to 

sit and stand up repeatedly until they collapse from exhaustion. If 

they do collapse, they are relentlessly slapped. 

An elderly grandmother who was 65 years old and next to me in 

the interrogation cells said she could not move any further and she 

was immediately and mercilessly slapped and beaten, while another young girl and I had our heads bashed against the wall repeatedly. 

After the interrogation was over and while in transit to the prison cells, one of the prisoners had talked back to the security guard 

and we were then mercilessly kicked by the guard, who was wearing boots. We were placed in cells that were crawling with insects 

and, while trying to sleep at night, because the space was so limited, we literally had to sleep on top of other prisoners. 

As a woman, it is hard for me to describe what I saw and experienced, but I want to speak out today with courage for the countless 

North Korean refugees who have suffered under North Korea’s evil 

and its violation of human rights. North Korean refugees swallow 

money wrapped in plastic when escaping to China. 

During arrest by the Chinese authorities and forced repatriation 

to North Korea and then going to prison, the money that is expelled naturally is peeled of its soiled plastic and swallowed again. 
12 

Another way of hiding money for women is to hide the money in 

the womb or in the anal cavity. 

There was an incident at the Bowibu facility in the Sinuiju in 

North Korea where a 16-year-old girl’s hymen ruptured and she 

was hemorrhaging blood. The Bowibu agent used a rubber glove 

used in washing clothes to check for money or contraband in her 

vagina, and due to the reckless searching the agent had ruptured 

her hymen. 

In their quest to search for money and to rob the prisoners they 

stopped at nothing, using all kinds of methods and means to do so. 

A lot of the women prisoners also attempted to give the money they 

took pains to hide to the security agents with the hope of being 

shown leniency or being let go. 

I remember vividly what happened to a North Korean refugee 

woman with a baby conceived with a Chinese man, who was repatriated. The head Bowibu security agent cussed profanities at her, 

yelling at this woman that she was someone who carried a Chinese 

seed. He then proceeded to torture and beat her with steel hooks 

by hitting her on the side of the head and forcing her to sit and 

stand repeatedly for 500 times, until she collapsed. 

North Korean agents continued to pour out obscenities such as 

‘‘dirty bitch’’ at the woman lying on the floor, and after they picked 

her up and sat her down on the floor the agents then beat her in 

the head with a wooden block and caused her nose to bleed and her 

blood from the beatings splattered all around her in the interrogation room. I saw this with my own eyes. This is one example. 

There were situations where we were bitten by bugs and we suffered from inflammation. When the temperatures got so cold and 

some prisoners were crying out in pain from frostbite, the security 

guards would punish everyone in the cell. 

When my family was repatriated for the last time my mother 

was hauled to be beaten and tortured. Hearing our mother’s bloodcurdling screams, my sister and I froze instantly with fear as if our 

hearts stopped. The head Bowibu agent began to torment and scare 

us by saying that if we told the truth our mother would not be hit. 

Despite this, we did not dare open our mouths. He grabbed our 

heads by our hair and began hitting us. The pain that was inflicted 

on us was so bad, we could not lay our heads down properly to 

sleep for about two weeks. 

Another form of punishment and torture I received in the interrogation room was where I was forced to kneel down and a wooden 

plank was placed between my thighs and between my bent legs. 

Every time I answered ‘‘no’’ to a question I was kicked, and that 

would cause me to bowl over. The plank that was placed was tremendously painful, and this was the one way that I was tortured 

and beaten. 

Other forms of beating and torture that I received after being 

forcibly repatriated by the Chinese authorities, were in one instance, where I was forced to stand on tip-toes and then mercilessly 

kicked and beaten, kicked and beaten to unconsciousness while 

forced to kneel, and then the security agents would wake me up 

with water splashed from an ashtray. 

All these methods of severe and cruel punishment were to try to 

find out whether the North Korean refugees had attempted to 
13 

eventually escape to South Korea or whether we had attended 

church or come into contact with Christians while in China. 

Our family, I believe, was miraculously saved through God’s special grace and mercy. I also believe that God saved me so that I 

would be able to tell the world the plight of the North Korean people’s unfair suffering and the worst modern-day evil that is going 

on right now. 

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. 

I sincerely and earnestly request that all of you here today, and 

for those throughout the world who will hear this hearing, that the 

good fortune and privilege we have now of living in freedom will 

become a reality for those more than 30 North Korean refugees 

currently being held by China, only through your combined attention and effort. 

I sincerely and earnestly request that you will help save the precious lives of the more than 30 North Korean refugees, lives that 

are more precious than anything in this world, through talking 

with the government of China, the government that, even as they 

are pushing down people who are drowning, reaching out their 

hands to be rescued. 

In the United States alone, over 100,000 people have signed a petition on behalf of saving these 30 North Korean refugees. I know 

that, because of the attention of this petition, they are not alone. 

I never had any idea that the people that we were brainwashed 

and taught to hate as sworn enemies, Americans such as Suzanne 

Scholte and the distinguished people sitting before me, that I 

would be sitting here before you and speaking before you today. 

I sincerely wish that the fear and terror that they are feeling, 

which is what I am feeling also, will be felt together as well by all 

of you, all of us here, and I sincerely and earnestly pray that God 

will help them. This stack of paper here is the petition signed by 

the people for the refugees that have been arrested in China recently. 

Thank you. 

Chairman SMITH. Ms. Jo, thank you so much for your testimony. 

You have laid out again, like your mom, information that the Congress, the Obama administration, the United Nations, any country 

that recognizes and prizes human rights and international law cannot ignore—torture, blood-curdling screams from your mother, fists, 

logs being used in beatings. 

Yet, you conclude by saying, ‘‘Our family, I believe, was miraculously saved through God’s special grace and mercy. I also believe 

that God saved me so that I would be able to tell the world the 

plight of the North Korean people’s unfair suffering and the worst 

modern-day evil that is going on right now.’’ 
14 

What a tremendous witness, that all people hear this, that the 

President of the United States hears what you have said so eloquently today. So, thank you so much for providing that witness to 

this Commission. We hope to amplify your message and to take 

very bold action ourselves. 

Before I get to some questions I would like to yield to my good 

friend and colleague, Mr. Royce, who does have to leave, for any 

statements or questions he might have. 

Representative ROYCE. Thank you. I would like, Mr. Chairman, 

to ask a question of Suzanne Scholte. During the horror of the 

Third Reich, at the waning days of that war when Dachau was liberated, my father had his brother’s camera and he took photographs there of the bodies stacked like cord wood next to the ovens 

where they were being burned, the people starved to death in the 

box cars. The photographs, by the way, of the prisoners, the uniforms, are almost identical. The striped uniforms, the uniforms you 

see, these children that are taken that are held in these work 

camps in North Korea. 

Here is the question my father asked me recently. He said, inasmuch as presumably we did not have the intelligence on what was 

going on as 6 million people were liquidated in these concentration 

camps, presuming that was the case, we had some excuse for not 

knowing what we were walking into. 

But how does the world today live with its conscience that we 

have the evidence that this is going on as we speak, that we have 

the defectors, the survivors, and yet when we say never again to 

this kind of conduct the international community does not speak 

with one voice to put the kind of pressure on this and elevate this 

to the level that the North Koreans are forced to deal with it. 

Could I ask you that question? What’s your thought? 

Ms. SCHOLTE. It is an excellent question, a very hard one to answer. But I will try to do that. I think that having been involved 

in this issue for some time, when we first started bringing defectors 

from North Korea to testify in the United States, in 1996, people 

did not believe it. It is much like what happened—in the 1940s— 

when people were trying to say, ‘‘This is what the Nazis are doing 

right now to the Jewish people.’’ People were like, ‘‘There is no 

way, I can’t believe that.’’ 

But now we have 23,000 eyewitnesses. They tell the same story. 

I think the challenge has been, first of all, our reliance on being 

able to see things first-hand. The reporters, Laura Ling and Euna 

Lee, are an example. These two reporters went to China to try to 

record what was happening to North Korean women. North Korean 

women are being bought and sold right now in China. They went 

to tell the story, and you know what happened to them. They 

ended up in Pyongyang. 

Representative ROYCE. I worked long and hard to try to assist 

the two of them. 

Ms. SCHOLTE. Yes. But I think that—— 

Representative ROYCE. And they were American citizens and you 

saw what they went through. 

Ms. SCHOLTE. Exactly. So I think part of the challenge is being 

able to see the political prison camps. That is why the work of the 

Committee for Human Rights in North Korea is so important, be-
15 

cause they have documented this from survivors. They have 

showed it. But we only have satellite images. No reporters have 

been inside a political prison camp. That is always the challenge 

that we have with the media trying to cover things. Also, the problem also is—— 

Representative ROYCE. But it is not that difficult. I mean, Mr. 

Shin—you can see the burns on his body. You can see the scars, 

the horrific scars. There is no operation that would ever inflict the 

kinds of things that you and I have seen on the defectors we have 

interviewed. 

Ms. SCHOLTE. No, you are exactly right. That is why what we 

have done is bring the—we cannot go to the political prison camp 

and we can’t go to China. That’s why we’ve brought the traffic victims here. That is why we brought the survivors of the political 

prison camps here so people could hear their stories. 

But I think another challenge is how South Korea has responded 

to this. I think that, for example, the U.S. Congress is united on 

this. They have passed, two times now, the North Korean Human 

Rights Act, bipartisan. We have seen the same type of action taking place in Japan. We have seen the United Nations recognize the 

severity of the human rights abuses in North Korea by appointing 

a special rapporteur. 

But South Korea has yet to pass a North Korean Human Rights 

Act. There is such a division in South Korea, that is, to me, a huge 

problem. I am glad that they dispatched diplomats to go to Geneva 

to bring this issue up with the Human Rights Council, but they 

should have dispatched diplomats to Beijing. 

Representative ROYCE. But you saw that Beijing refused to let 

Parliamentarian Park into the country. She is not going to be allowed a visa to go into the country. 

I passed a resolution here. I have written to 200 parliamentarians, 62 different countries that are part of our International Parliamentarian Coalition on North Korean Refugees and Human 

Rights. We do have a lot of parliamentarians around the world taking action. 

But I would turn it back to this country and I would say, under 

the prior administration and under this administration we have 

not pursued policies that would cut off the life support for North 

Korea. You and I know that over in Treasury, when they put the 

freeze on assets, Banco of Delta Asia, in order to make it impossible for them to continue their military build-up, that put Kim 

Jong-il in a terrible position. He could not pay his generals. 

We have heard from the defectors, like the former Propaganda 

Minister, that the resources they get their hands on, the food they 

get their hands on, goes to feed the military or is sold on the food 

exchange in Pyongyang for hard currency that they can put into 

their weapons program. 

Fifty percent of the support for that regime comes through illicit 

activities that we could close down with an anti-proliferation initiative that we once had in place, or by freezing the bank accounts 

so that they cannot have access to the money to do this. 

Why isn’t it time to implode this regime or put the kind of pressure that, in the past, worked on bringing down other regimes? 

South Africa is an example. Sanctions brought down South Africa, 
16 

or ended apartheid in South Africa. Why not a concerted effort in 

North Korea? 

Instead of the new food aid, which I think, just as in the past, 

is going to get to the military and help prop them up, why not a 

serious effort to, once and for all, change this situation since the 

aid never gets out to the ‘‘No-Go’’ areas in the countryside? We 

have had French NGOs testify that they followed the food aid being 

sold on the exchange for hard currency. 

Ms. SCHOLTE. Right. Well, you know I totally agree with you. I 

think it was a real tragedy that George Bush, who cared and actually met with defectors, actually met with the head of Free North 

Korea Radio, who I quoted in my testimony, actually met with 

Kang Chul Hwan, a survivor of a political prison camp, actually 

met with the Hanmee family, one of the families that we helped 

rescue, had a heart for this issue, but he ended up becoming a 

money launderer for Kim Jong-il, using our own Treasury Department to return the money from the Bank of Delta Asia scandal. 

Representative ROYCE. I will close with this: how can we better 

deploy Radio Free Asia [RFA] and Voice of America [VOA]? We 

have heard the defectors now tell us that there are people—including governmental defectors, right? Now we are getting officers and 

high-ranking civil servants that are listening to VOA and RFA. Are 

there other ways that we can get information into North Korea, 

just as we did into the East Bloc, that sort of changed the paradigm? What do you think would be most helpful? 

Ms. SCHOLTE. Well, absolutely continuing to support the defectors’ broadcasts, like Free North Korea Radio. But also, we do balloon launches regularly. We can tell, by how the regime reacts, the 

things that are most effective. They absolutely cannot stand the 

balloon launches. They do not like the defector’s radio programs— 

they have been trying to assassinate Free North Korea Radio director Kim Seong-min for years. 

I also think that helping and getting as much information as possible into North Korea through every means possible. We have cell 

phone technology now. There are a lot of North Koreans that have 

cell phones. We are trying to get things in through China. 

On the food aid, and I tried to articulate this to the Obama administration, Obama is in a unique position because he can articulate—he should be saying, we know you are hungry. We know that 

most North Koreans spend their days trying to figure out how they 

are going to feed their families. Obama can send a very strong signal that we want to get food aid, we want to help you, but we are 

not going to give you the food aid unless we know we can stay 

there to see it consumed. 

The critical thing is being there at the point of consumption. If 

we are not there at the point of consumption it is 100 percent diverted. We have got to see it utilized by that orphan or by that 

starving elderly person. We should not provide any food aid unless 

we can see it at the point of consumption. We can certainly send 

that message and that is certainly something that President 

Obama should do. 

Representative ROYCE. Thank you. I thank our other very brave 

witnesses here today. 
17 

Chairman SMITH. Let me just ask, if I could, and maybe to you, 

Ms. Scholte, what has the United Nations, the UNHCR, for example—what is Ban Ki-moon—a Korean, former member of his own 

government in South Korea who obviously must know, or must be 

painfully aware of exactly what these refugees go through. What 

have they done? We know that President Lee [of South Korea] has 

raised it. He has raised it with the Foreign Minister of China. 

I am wondering if there have been any appreciable or discernible 

changes since that conversation, or no. Why hasn’t the UNHCR responded? I would just point out, and you might respond to this, Michael Horowitz, who is one of the architects of the North Korean 

Human Rights Act of 2004, has underscored and stressed the importance of, if the UNHCR continues to be denied full access to the 

North Korean refugees, the UN High Commissioner could initiate 

a binding international arbitration proceeding against the Government of China, as authorized by the UNHCR China Treaty of December 1, 1995. So there is a mechanism. It is ripe, like low-hanging fruit, standing there and waiting to be utilized. What accounts 

for the apparent lack of interest? Why hasn’t it been used? 

Ms. SCHOLTE. Well, I am not an expert on that issue, but I know 

you’re going to be talking about it in the next panel. 

Chairman SMITH. Yes. 

Ms. SCHOLTE. But my understanding is you have to have a country that is willing to pursue that in the United Nations, like to 

carry the water on the binding arbitration. 

Chairman SMITH. Like the United States? 

Ms. SCHOLTE. To take the lead on it. 

Chairman SMITH. Like the United States? 

Ms. SCHOLTE. Like the United States. My understanding is, any 

country can do that but no one has taken the lead. 

As far as UNHCR and Ban Ki-moon, they have been completely 

ineffectual. 

Chairman SMITH. Say that again. Completely what? 

Ms. SCHOLTE. Ineffectual. No effect. They have done nothing. 

They have done neither. I think the UNHCR, though—I will say 

this, that I know that whenever we have called out to them and 

appealed to them for help, they have tried to help. The problem is, 

as long as China refuses to acknowledge that these are refugees 

and not economic migrants, then the UNHCR’s role is minimized 

because they have to have the permission of the host government 

to do something. That is why, even though there was funding that 

was provided in the North Korean Human Rights Act, nothing was 

ever authorized because you have to have the permission of the 

host government. So the real problem is China. 

Congressman Royce is right, the campaign by the parliamentarians, this is another important thing. They responded. China and 

North Korea—you can see their reactions, they don’t want to make 

this an international problem. That’s why we have to do this, and 

that’s exactly what you’re talking about. The international community has to be involved aggressively on this, as well as South Korea 

and the United States, in taking a lead. 

Chairman SMITH. Ms. Jo, you mentioned how the North Korean 

officials, the security agents, had suggested that the woman was a 

‘‘bitch’’ who carried Chinese seed. I am wondering if you detected 
18 

racial bigotry on the part of North Korean officials toward the Chinese and why the Chinese Government is not upset over that kind 

of racial bigotry. 

Ms. JO. To answer your question, yes, those North Koreans who 

went to China just to seek food and come back would be less severely treated because they just went to search for food and to lessen the hunger situation. 

But those who went to China and became pregnant are deemed 

by the state as ones who gave up North Korea, who went to China, 

got pregnant, and are deemed to have wanted to settle down in 

China and give up North Korea. So that is why they would be seen 

as a traitor and be even more harshly treated and severely punished. 

Chairman SMITH. Do Chinese officials and North Korean agents 

work together and target refugee communities in China? Yes, Suzanne? 

Ms. SCHOLTE. Yes. Absolutely. The North Korean security agents 

and the Chinese security agents are in total collusion. That is why, 

for China to deny them refugee status when they full well know 

that these North Koreans are going to be subjected to horrible 

abuse when they get sent back—this has been a steady problem. 

North Korea actually has been using spies that pose as defectors 

to try to break up these escape routes, the underground railroad. 

That is what happened with this latest group. There were North 

Korean agents that were posing as defectors and that is how this 

last group got arrested, because the group got sent to detention but 

some of the defectors got released because they were North Korean 

agents. So they are definitely working very closely together. 

Chairman SMITH. Let me just ask you, in total candor, has the 

United States raised the issues of these defectors in a robust manner? And that would be the Secretary of State Hilary Clinton, 

President Obama. We recently had the Vice President of China 

here in the United States. Was it on the agenda? 

Ms. SCHOLTE. I don’t know. I was kind of hoping somebody would 

ask Secretary Clinton that question last week when she testified 

before the House Foreign Affairs Committee. 

Chairman SMITH. We ran out of time. 

Ms. SCHOLTE. We did call very strongly on Vice President Biden, 

President Obama, and Secretary Clinton when the Vice Premier of 

China was here to raise this issue with China, and we know from 

friends in the Senate, we know this was raised with them but we 

don’t know whether they raised the issue with the Chinese. 

Chairman SMITH. Without revealing any methods—and I’ll just 

ask two more questions—how do family members in China communicate to their family members in North Korea, or do they communicate? If it is going to, in any way, compromise any of those methods, please don’t answer it. 

Ms. JO. There are basically two methods. Ethnic Chinese-Korean, 

or ‘‘joseonjok’’ traders or merchants who are able to travel from 

China to North Korea, would be the ones who would carry cell 

phones. Through these merchants or traders, they would be in 

touch with family members in North Korea. Of course, they would 

be paid, given money to go to carry on these transactions of giving 

the phones to the family members. 
19 

Through that method they would be able to communicate with 

family members in China, with the family members in North 

Korea. Another method is, North Korean defectors who resettled in 

South Korea or the United States would send money or they themselves would actually send the phones to the people, their contacts 

in China, and that would be another method of being able to communicate with family members in China and North Korea, between 

the two. 

However, now because the North Korea regime knows about the 

prevalent use of the cell phones, the North Korea regime has 

brought in cell phone surveillance equipment and is catching these 

North Korean citizens talking with their relatives back in China. 

There are known instances of North Korean citizens who have been 

arrested by the state and incarcerated for the crime of speaking 

and using a cell phone illegally. 

Chairman SMITH. Thank you. 

Before going to the second panel, just let me thank you, Ms. 

Scholte, Ms. Han, Ms. Jo, for your extraordinary testimonies. I 

would like to ask if there is anything you would like to say before 

we go to our second panel? 

Ms. HAN. Our family of eight was reduced to just three, myself 

and my two daughters. We are now here. We came to America and 

we are living in freedom. We are so grateful and thankful for that. 

While we were in China, the three of us, we were repatriated four 

times. 

That fear, that dread that I felt at that time was that my family, 

that was reduced to just two daughters, I might even lose my remaining two daughters now. That is the fear and the dread that 

I felt at that time. I know that the 30 or so North Korean refugees 

that are being held by China right now, I know that they are feeling the same feeling of dread, fear, and terror. I know that they 

are looking to the United States to help them and to rescue them. 

I just want to conclude by saying that the U.S. Government 

should forcefully raise this issue and pressure the involved people, 

the Chinese Government, so that repatriation will not occur and 

that these refugees will be able to go to South Korea or the United 

States, and many years down the road that these refugees, these 

defectors who start new lives in freedom, in free countries, will be 

able to grow and become successful people, and later on that they 

in turn will go back to a free North Korea and make that country 

prosperous just like the other free nations of the world. Thank you. 

I would like to conclude by saying that many people throughout 

the world have signed the petition, as can be seen in this stack of 

papers here, and many people are fighting for and caring about 

this issue. So, thank you very much. 

Ms. SCHOLTE. I just wanted to thank you very much, Congressman Smith, for your continuing focus on North Korean human 

rights, and for the media that’s here. This is a huge embarrassment to China that more and more people know about this issue, 

and this is the pivotal time when we can convince the Chinese to 

change this. 

If we do not do it now, there are going to be more and more horror stories as they have told more and more people. It is literally 

a matter of life and death for those refugees that are being held 
20 

by China right now. So, I just want to thank you for your continual 

focus on this. 

I did want to mention, on a very positive note, and I just want 

to share with you that your two witnesses are going to be part of 

the American delegation for North Korean Freedom Week, which 

will be in Seoul in April. So for the first time we are going to have 

North Korean defectors that are part of the American delegation, 

and I think it is going to send a very positive sign to the people 

of North Korea. 

Ms. JO. Representative Smith, I would like to conclude by saying 

that, as Suzanne mentioned previously, the balloon launches, radio 

broadcasts by stations like Free North Korea Radio, those are important. But the third thing I would like to add is that in Chinese 

cities, there are many North Korean refugees. 

If the U.S. Government, and especially the Korean-American 

churches in America, can find ways or means to help them to be 

able to resettle in South Korea or the United States, that would be 

of great help. In my personal case, Pastor Philip Buck, a KoreanAmerican pastor, was instrumental. He, along with other KoreanAmerican pastors, was instrumental in saving my family and 

bringing us to the United States. Thank you. 

Chairman SMITH. Thank you. Appreciate it so much. 

I would like to now ask our second panel to make their way to 

the witness table, beginning first with T. Kumar. 

T. Kumar is Amnesty International’s Director for International 

Advocacy. He has testified before the U.S. Congress on numerous 

occasions to discuss China’s and North Korea’s human rights 

abuses. He has served as a human rights monitor in many Asian 

countries, as well as in Bosnia, Afghanistan, Guatemala, Sudan, 

and South Africa. 

We will then hear from Mr. Greg Scarlatoiu, who is Executive 

Director of the Committee for Human Rights in North Korea in 

Washington, DC. He plans, coordinates, manages, and conducts research and outreach programs to focus world attention on human 

rights abuses in North Korea. He has authored a weekly radio column broadcast by Radio Free Asia to North Korea for nine years, 

and numerous English and Korean language articles on Korean peninsula issues. 

We will then hear from Mr. Michael Horowitz, who is Senior Fellow at the Hudson Institute in Washington. He is also the Director 

of the Hudson Institute’s Project for Civil Justice Reform, and 

Project for International Religious Liberty. He has written frequently on North Korean issues and human rights topics and is 

regularly called to testify and consult with Congress. As I said earlier, he was one of the principle architects of the North Korea 

Human Rights Act of 2004, and that is putting it mildly in terms 

of his role. So, thank you, all three, for being here. 

We will begin with Mr. Kumar. 

STATEMENT OF T. KUMAR, DIRECTOR FOR INTERNATIONAL 

ADVOCACY, AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL USA 

Mr. KUMAR. Thank you very much, Chairman Smith. 

First of all, Amnesty International is extremely pleased to be 

here to express our concern and the information we have about the 
21 

plight of a group of people in China who have been not only abused 

by one country, but by two countries—in this case, China and 

North Korea. 

Above all, the people who have fled North Korea have fled out 

of desperation, out of desperation because of famine, because of political oppression. When they flee, instead of getting protected, they 

have been abused by the Chinese and also by the North Koreans. 

So I would like to, first, give you a glimpse of what is happening 

in North Korea, for the people of North Korea, for them to be so 

desperate to flee to a country where they get abused themselves. 

The famine situation is extremely dire there. Thousands have died. 

Even the food distribution system has been staggered into who 

are supporters of government, then who are not hostile, and hostile 

to government. So the lowest bottom of the hostile to government 

category, they do not get enough food. As a result, we have seen 

famine and death. Also, we have documented numerous abuses in 

prison camps there, a large number of prison camps there. 

So as a result, we have seen thousands crossing over to China 

to flee this persecution and economic hardship. When they flee, 

they go through two difficult aspects. The first one is, they are 

illegals there. Basically, China never accepts them, that they are 

fleeing because of political persecution or any other reason. So they 

consider them as economic migrants and their policy is to expel 

them. 

So these people are pretty much illegals, so they survive by the 

help of some ethnic Koreans in the border areas, working in farms, 

working in other odd jobs, and some people even beg to survive. 

Above all, since they are illegals, they get abused by everyone, including the employers, including by the Chinese authorities. 

Above all, Chinese authorities have special units that go after 

these people and track them down to find out who these people are, 

then deport them. That is one piece of it. The second piece that disturbs everyone is that the Chinese Government also allows North 

Korean agents to cross into their country and do their arrests and 

detention and abduct them back to North Korea. 

So these people, when they come, they go through hardships on 

one side and then abuse by North Korean agents, as well as the 

Chinese agents. China never allows UN groups and also human 

rights organizations like Amnesty International, or anyone, even to 

visit or to monitor what is happening to these groups of people. 

So these people are kind of left to themselves and fearful anytime of what will happen to them when they get returned. So when 

they get returned, usually they are considered traitors and people 

who have betrayed their motherland, in this case, North Korea. So, 

they have severe punishments. 

So imagine before they leave they were normal people, but when 

they leave out of desperation they become refugees and the Chinese 

Government never recognizes them as refugees. When they kick 

them out, they become criminals in their own country. 

Now, as you mentioned earlier in your opening remarks, there 

are new statements coming out from the current new Government 

of North Korea that anyone who flees will be persecuted more intensely. So when these people return they get detained, tortured, 

and we have also documented executions. They are sent to labor 
22 

camps, and we have documented and we have interviewed people 

who have certified to us that they have seen public executions because of the only crime that they crossed into China just to basically survive. 

Coming back to China, the Chinese Government is able to do 

these things for a couple of reasons. One just relates to North 

Korea. They have an agreement, a bilateral agreement with North 

Korea, which is an illegal agreement whereby they agree—both 

countries have this agreement so that they will return anyone who 

is here. 

The other aspect is the most disturbing fact—the international 

community’s silence on this issue—silence, for different reasons. 

Above all, the silence of our country, the United States, is also disturbing. You mentioned earlier about the vice president’s recent 

visit. We are not aware of the Obama administration raising this 

in a vigorous manner. That is extremely disturbing. 

So we have some proposals immediately to the Obama administration. There are two dialogues coming up. One is the U.S.-China 

Security and Economic Dialogue. We want this issue to be one of 

the other issues—you know, there are other human rights issues 

in China—to be discussed in a very high-level manner during this 

Security and Economic Dialogue with China. 

Second is, of course, the Annual Human Rights Dialogue. So unless the United States makes this a priority we are going to see 

that the group of people who have fled and are getting abused by 

two countries are going to continue being faced with more abuses 

because of no fault of them. These people are pretty much victims, 

so we are seeing the victims get victimized through no fault of their 

own. 

The other thing that the United States can do is to raise it in 

the UN system. I am sure other panelists will be able to discuss 

that. They should raise it in a more vigorous manner. 

Thank you again, Mr. Chairman, for inviting us and we appreciate it. I want our testimony to be on the record. 

Chairman SMITH. Mr. Kumar, thank you very much for your testimony. 

I would like to now call on our second witness, Mr. Scarlatoiu. 

[The prepared statement of Mr. Kumar appears in the appendix.] 

STATEMENT OF GREG SCARLATOIU, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, 

COMMITTEE FOR HUMAN RIGHTS IN NORTH KOREA 

Mr. SCARLATOIU. Chairman Smith, on behalf of the Committee 

for Human Rights in North Korea, thank you for inviting me to 

speak with you at this hearing today. 

Our committee considers it essential to draw attention to the 

case of 30 to 40 North Koreans who have been arrested by China 

and who now risk being forcibly returned to North Korea, where 

they most assuredly will be subjected to severe punishment, in violation of international refugee and human rights law. 

The fundamental rights to leave a country to seek asylum abroad 

and not to be forcibly returned to conditions of danger are internationally recognized rights which China and North Korea must be 

obliged to respect. 
23 

Mr. Chair, the Committee for Human Rights in North Korea is 

a Washington, DC-based non-governmental organization [NGO] established in 2001. Our committee’s main statement has been prepared by Chair Roberta Cohen, who is unable to be here today. I 

will draw upon the statement in my oral remarks. 

Over the past two decades, considerable numbers of North Koreans have risked their lives to cross the border into China. They 

have done so because of starvation, economic deprivation, or political persecution. It is estimated that there are thousands, or tens 

of thousands, in China today. 

Most are vulnerable to forced returns, where they will face persecution and punishment because leaving North Korea without permission is a criminal offense. Yet, to China, all North Koreans are 

economic migrants and over the years it has forcibly returned tens 

of thousands to conditions of extreme danger. 

We, therefore, submit that North Koreans in China merit international refugee protection for the following reasons: 

(1) A definite number of those who cross the border may do 

so out of a well-founded fear of persecution on political, social, 

or religious grounds that will accord with the 1951 Refugee 

Convention. 

(2) The reasons why the North Koreans flee to China go beyond the economic realm. Those who cross the border into 

China for reasons of economic deprivation are often from poorer classes without access to the food and material benefits enjoyed by the privileged political elite. 

Subject to Korea’s songbun social classification system, their quest 

for economic survival may be based on political persecution. Examining such cases in a refugee determination process might establish 

that certain numbers crossing into China for economic survival 

merit refugee status. 

(3) By far the most compelling argument why North Koreans 

should not be forcibly returned is that most, if not all, fit the 

category of refugees sur place. As defined by the UN High 

Commissioner for Refugees [UNHCR], refugees sur place are 

persons who might not have been refugees when they left their 

country, but who become refugees at a later date because they 

have a valid fear of persecution upon return. 

North Koreans who leave their country for reasons including economic motives have valid reasons for fearing persecution and punishment upon return. Accordingly, UNHCR has urged China not to 

forcibly return North Koreans and has proposed a special humanitarian status for them so that they can obtain temporary documentation and access to services and not be repatriated. 

China, however, has refused to allow UNHCR access to North 

Koreans in border areas where it could set up a screening process. 

It considers itself bound by an agreement it made with North 

Korea in 1986, obliging both countries to prevent illegal border 

crossings, which replaced an earlier 1960 agreement. 

It also stands by its local law in Jilin Province which requires 

the return of North Koreans who enter illegally. Both documents 

stand in violation of China’s obligations under the 1951 Refugee 

Convention, which it signed in 1982, and its membership in 
24 

UNHCR’s Executive Committee and the human rights agreements 

it has ratified, including the Convention Against Torture and the 

Convention on the Rights of the Child. 

Most North Koreans in China have no rights and are vulnerable 

to exploitation, forced marriages, and trafficking, as well as to 

forced returns, where they will face persecution and punishment. 

Our committee’s report, ‘‘Lives for Sale: Personal Accounts of 

Women Fleeing North Korea to China’’ (2010), documents the experiences of North Korean women in China and the extreme lack of 

protection for them. 

To encourage China to fulfill its international obligations to 

North Koreans in its territory, our committee puts forward the following recommendations: 

(1) The U.S. Congress should consider additional hearings on 

the plight of North Koreans who cross into China to keep a 

spotlight on the issue and try to avert forced repatriations to 

conditions of danger. 

(2) Members of Congress should consider supporting the efforts of the Parliamentary Forum for Democracy, established 

in 2010, so their joint inter-parliamentary efforts can be mobilized in a number of countries on behalf of the North Koreans 

endangered in China. 

(3) The United States should encourage UNHCR to raise its 

profile on this issue. It further, should lend its full support to 

UNHCR’s appeals and proposals to China and mobilize other 

governments to do likewise in order to make sure that the provisions of the 1951 Refugee Convention are upheld and the 

work of this important UN agency enhanced. 

(4) Together with other concerned governments, the United 

States should give priority to raising the forced repatriation of 

North Koreans with Chinese officials, but in the absence of a 

response should bring the issue before international refugee 

and human rights fora. 

(5) The United States should consider promoting a multi-lateral approach to the problem of North Koreans leaving the 

country. 

(6) The United States should consider ways to enhance its 

readiness to increase the number of North Korean refugees 

and asylum seekers admitted to this country. Other countries 

should be encouraged as well to take in more North Korean 

refugees and asylum seekers until such time as they no longer 

face persecution and punishment in their country. 

Thank you, Mr. Chairman and members of the Commission. I 

look forward to answering any questions you might have. 

Chairman SMITH. Mr. Scarlatoiu, thank you very much for your 

testimony and for your insights, as well as your very specific recommendations, and Mr. Kumar’s as well. That was an extraordinary testimony. 

Now I would like to welcome Mr. Horowitz and ask him to 

present this testimony. 

STATEMENT OF MICHAEL HOROWITZ, SENIOR FELLOW, 

HUDSON INSTITUTE 

Mr. HOROWITZ. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 
25 

At this hearing there’s been much focus, and rightly so, on the 

conduct and evils committed by the Government of China and by 

the Government of North Korea. What I hope to provide and what 

I think is very much called for is further thought on how to make 

those protests, how to make those complaints, more effective in 

ways that reach China. 

My own experience with China, and I think you will confirm it, 

Mr. Chairman, is that it is in many ways the least ideological country in the world. It is all an issue of cost and gain. There are ways 

of imposing costs on China for its conduct toward these refugees 

that I think need exploration. 

Let me set out some that I think will be the most effective. The 

first is really to thank you, Mr. Smith and colleagues like Congressman Wolf, Congressman Royce, who live and die these human 

rights issues. I wish there were more of you in Congress. This is 

an occasion to lament the death of Tom Lantos. I think, had he 

been alive, Congress would have spoken on a bipartisan basis and 

much more clearly. And former colleagues like Tony Hall are as 

well deeply missed in not having made this a much more bipartisan issue than it ought to be. 

I do hope in that regard that we can reach Minority Leader 

Nancy Pelosi, because when she was a mere Member of Congress 

her voice was one of the loudest, and clearest, and bravest on 

human rights violations by the Chinese Government. 

If somehow Minority Leader and former Speaker Pelosi can regain that voice, I think China will sit up and listen because there 

really will be a bipartisan coalition. So, reaching Nancy Pelosi 

seems to me one way of rescuing these 33 people and changing China’s policies. 

In the Senate, we need to make up for the loss of Sam 

Brownback and Evan Bayh, who spoke so clearly and on a bipartisan basis. And I am hoping that Senator Brown, that Senator 

Rubio, that others join and that we have this kind of bipartisan 

strength that China will recognize and respond to. 

The second, and it has been mentioned, is the Korean-American 

community. I have spent the last five years trying to engage that 

community, as the Jewish community was engaged on the campaign for Soviet Jewry, as the African-American community was 

engaged on the campaign against the apartheid regime. 

I am absolutely convinced that in this Nation of immigrants, 

which always hears the cries of Americans who speak of the torture 

of their brothers and sisters in their home countries, that the Korean-American community, unbeknownst to itself, has the power to 

change China’s mind and shift American policy and create a paradigm shift on China’s part and in the treatment of these refugees. 

Let me put it this way: Neither the Democratic nor the Republican Party would be willing for a second, no matter what China’s 

pressures would be, to risk the loss of the votes in support of the 

Korean-American community over the next 25 or 30 years. The 

leadership of the Korean-American community must make this its 

signature issue: The murder of their brothers and sisters. And we 

have ways of reaching that community, as Scoop Jackson reached 

a reluctant Jewish community. 
26 

So there’s another leadership role for this Commission and for 

you, again, Mr. Chairman. I would have Members of Congress call 

in the leaders, the church leaders in the Korean-American community, as Scoop Jackson called in the leaders of the Jewish community, and tell them to have a prayer Sunday for North Korea at 

3,000 Korean-American churches with voter registration booths 

outside the churches. 

That will change things dramatically within the administration 

and China will see that it cannot use the business community, it 

cannot leverage the political community because America will listen to an aroused, engaged Korean-American community, which 

has not yet happened. 

Third, of course, the administration. And it’s been mentioned, 

food aid should be distributed on a needs basis. This new deal that 

was made has got to be made with careful attention to the fair distribution of the food on a needs basis. 

But the core of it all, and it’s a problem of both this administration and the prior one, is the lack of a Helsinki Strategy approach 

to dealing with China and North Korea issues. 

A Helsinki Strategy would, as Suzanne and others have said, put 

human rights issues right in the basket of things that are negotiated as we talk of all weapons issues with North Korea. It has 

been relegated to a so-called second track. The Chinese get it: It 

doesn’t matter. 

Whenever an American official speaks, as the Vice President did 

during the Xi visit, the Chinese understand that that’s for domestic 

political consumption and it doesn’t really reflect the policy of the 

United States to prioritize issues of human rights. Let me say, 

Ronald Reagan understood all this. 

You know why, Mr. Chairman? Because he had been president 

of a union. I think if we had the AFL–CIO replacing the State Department in these negotiations there would be this understanding: 

That raising human rights issues is important not only for moral 

reasons, but it would make us far more powerful on the weapons 

issues, where we offer and sell the same product and get the same 

promises and give money and get no response, as will be the case 

this time. 

And any union negotiator would understand that if the only 

thing on our table is the weapons issue, we are signaling to China 

and to North Korea, ‘‘You’ve got something we want, how much do 

we have to pay you for it? ’’ All the leverage goes on the other side. 

Anybody from the Teamster’s union would get it in a second, Mr. 

Chairman; and that’s what we need, the kind of shrewdness in bargaining that I find lacking here and the power of a Helsinki Strategy. 

From that follows—and I want to get specific about the 33—Bob 

King is a very decent, caring man, who is our Special Envoy for 

North Korean Human Rights, but as I have said, he’s on the second 

track. It’s so low as not to count, really. And the Chinese take Bob 

King’s assignment as the negotiator for the 33, I fear, as a signal 

that they can deport those 33 and nothing will happen to U.S.- 

China relations. We need to get—and I hope this Commission will 

ensure this—the Secretary to become engaged in the negotiation 
27 

over the lives of those 33 and the others. That’s the signal that this 

administration has not sent but needs to send. 

And I think Michael Posner, a friend and a good man, needs to 

throw around his weight a little bit more and pound his shoe on 

the table because he’s been ignored, as Frank Wolf pointed out at 

the last hearing, over the Xi visit. And I think Michael needs to 

seriously indicate to his colleagues in the State Department that 

he’s ready to resign if those 33 are deported. I think he has a moral 

obligation to resign, frankly, if any of those 33 are sent to death 

camps and if this administration sends the kind of low-interest, 

low-priority signal it has sent. 

And finally, Mr. Chairman, the United Nations. There is the key 

leverage point. I have set it out in a memo that I distributed that 

I hope will be part of the record, and it was also set out in a remarkable letter sent by Senator Brownback and Congressman Wolf 

to former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan: All refugees, as everybody has said, are migrants because they are persecuted on their 

return. You don’t need to know anything else. The United Nations 

has the right to access those refugees the second they cross the 

Tumen River, and the obligation to insist upon it. But as you pointed out, Mr. Chairman, there is Article 14 of the China-UNHCR 

treaty, which is a powerful tool that I call on this Commission, and 

everybody who cares, to begin exploiting. That’s true of the South 

Koreans who are protesting against China. They ought to be protesting to Ban Ki-moon, himself a Korean, because the United Nations has the ability to change the whole ball game. 

Let me just state, Section 14 of the treaty says that, ‘‘Any dispute between the Government of China and the UNHCR, arising 

out of or relating to this agreement, dealing with refugees, shall be 

settled amicably or by negotiation or other mode of settlement. But 

if this fails, such a dispute shall be submitted to arbitration at the 

request of either party.’’ 

And Suzanne Scholte, for whom I have the most profound respect, said that some other country needs to negotiate it. That’s not 

even accurate in that regard. The UNHCR can do it. Here’s the last 

sentence: ‘‘If, within 30 days of the request for arbitration, neither 

party has appointed an arbitrator’’—and we’re talking about China 

here—‘‘Either party may request the president of the International 

Court of Justice to appoint an arbitrator. The arbitral award shall 

contain a statement of the reasons on which it is based and shall 

be accepted by the parties as the final adjudication of this dispute.’’ 

Imagine the price China would have to pay if they were getting 

sued by the United Nations. 

And let me say, Mr. Chairman, in conclusion, that the North 

Korea Human Rights Act is explicit. It said that the failure of the 

United Nations to bring that arbitration proceeding provided under 

Article 14 of the treaty was, and I quote, ‘‘An abdication by the 

UNHCR of one its core responsibilities.’’ 

Now, Mr. Chairman, we finance the United Nations and the 

UNHCR. China doesn’t put any money in, we do. It’s time we got 

our money’s worth. It’s time we really protected the lives of those 

33 and the others, and we have the means to do it. And I am hopeful that this Commission, and frankly, members of the Appropriations Committee who provide that support for the United Nations 
28 

and for the UNHCR, will call in the High Commissioner, will call 

in Ban Ki-moon, will call their colleagues in the South Korean National Assembly, and begin putting the heat on the United Nations 

to stop being passive and, frankly, stop appeasing China and begin 

enforcing their treaty obligations and responsibilities. 

Thank you, Mr. Chairman, for permitting me to testify. 

Chairman SMITH. Thank you very much, Mr. Horowitz, for your 

testimony, and very valid—and I think very effective—recommendations as to what all of us should be doing, including this 

Commission. 

I just want to thank all three of you for reminding us that whatever the intent was originally for leaving North Korea—as Ms. Han 

pointed out, her husband went across the Tumen River to bring 

back a sack of rice because their family, his family, was starving— 

for that he was imprisoned and killed, and then they became 

marked persons themselves. It is what you are going to be forcibly 

repatriated to that dictates whether or not you’re a refugee, and I 

think for some to miss that very obvious point needs to be underscored. 

All three of you pointed that out, that whatever the original intent, if they go back they’re marked people. They have a huge target on their backs and they either go to execution or to hideous torture that awaits them. So, thank you for reminding us of that, all 

three of you. 

Let me just ask, again, you heard Michael Horowitz talk about 

the importance of focusing on the United Nations, and all three of 

you did make mention of that as well, and the UNHCR. But invoking this mechanism that he spoke of, do you find that, Mr. Kumar 

and Mr. Scarlatoiu, to be something that needs to be pursued as 

well? Do you find that a very effective mechanism? Mr. Kumar? 

Mr. KUMAR. I am not aware of this. I mean, not in depth, like 

Mike is aware. But that mechanism, as he explained, should be exploited. The United States can play a role, by the way. The 

UNHCR has to be pressured by the U.S. administration. I am sure 

there are representatives who are there in the UN High Commission, and they have a mechanism in their body to exploit this. I 

have never heard of it. 

I even asked Mike before the hearing, is there any precedent for 

this when we discussed this. Otherwise, this will become a precedent. That would be a great thing, by the way. So I will recommend 

that the U.S. administration—we should urge the United Nations, 

but you know how the United Nations operates. 

They need member countries to exert pressure—the United 

States, along with other countries, South Korea as well—and put 

some pressure on the UNHCR to exploit this mechanism to see 

whether that’s something achievable. If that can be achieved, that 

would be a ground-breaking avenue to protect North Korean refugees, as well as other refugees who may be in the same plight. 

Mr. SCARLATOIU. Chairman Smith, in the fourth recommendation 

that I respectfully brought to your attention today we suggest that 

we should give priority to raising the forced repatriation of North 

Koreans with Chinese officials, but also absent a response we 

should bring the issue before international refugee and human 

rights fora. 
29 

Certainly UNHCR’s Executive Committee, the UN Human 

Rights Council, as well as the General Assembly of the United Nations, should all be expected to call on China by name to carry out 

its obligations under refugee and human rights law and enact legislation to codify these obligations so that North Koreans will not 

be expelled if their lives or freedom are in danger. 

I have also mentioned the need for a multi-lateral approach to 

the issue of North Koreans leaving the country. Their exodus affects more than just China, it concerns South Korea—the Republic 

of Korea, most notably, whose constitution offers citizenship to 

North Koreans; countries in east and southeast Asia, eastern and 

western Europe, as well as Mongolia and the United States, are 

also affected. 

A multi-lateral approach should be designed, an approach that 

finds solutions for North Koreans based on principles of nonrefoulement and human rights and humanitarian protection. 

Chairman SMITH. Thank you. 

Mr. Horowitz? 

Mr. HOROWITZ. I have spoken with the High Commissioner for 

Refugees. It just boggles my mind, Mr. Chairman. He talks about 

the pressure from the Chinese. He doesn’t talk about pressure from 

the United States, which pays his electric bills. It is time now to 

put the heat on the United Nations and, frankly, with the Secretary General himself being Korean and a former Foreign Minister of Korea, we’ve got the leverage to apply. 

Our complaining, even if the State Department were as committed as I hope they would be, won’t move China as much as the 

notion that they were isolated and the United Nations and the 

UNHCR were suing them for what everybody acknowledges, including the United Nations, is a clear violation of all of the applicable treaties. So I think the time has come to put the heat on and 

put the focus on the United Nations, and that would be true even 

if there wasn’t an arbitration proceeding in the China UNHCR 

treaty. 

Chairman SMITH. To the best of your knowledge have the picketers and the protesters who rightfully have focused on North 

Korea and certainly on China, but to the best of my knowledge 

they have not focused on the leverage that the United States could 

bring, and I don’t think they have sufficiently focused on the leverage they could bring to bear on the United Nations itself. 

Mr. HOROWITZ. Exactly. I think that we need to focus on the 

United States. As I’ve said, we need to focus on moving the negotiations from the level—good as he is—of Bob King to the level of 

the Secretary. I think we need to make Michael Posner understand 

that his tenure and the respect he earns will be contingent on the 

United States elevating, by orders of magnitude, the priority of this 

negotiation. 

But I think most of all we need to put the onus on the United 

Nations, whose treaties are being violated and whose response has 

been literally non-existent. That must change and the United 

States has the leverage to make it happen, I believe. 

Chairman SMITH. You know, we’ve called this hearing as an 

emergency hearing precisely because, for those individuals affected—maybe it’s 33, it might be a few more, nobody knows for 
30 

sure—their lives are in imminent danger of persecution or execution. It seems to me that with the focus—and I do thank the media 

for being here, for amplifying the concern and the message of all 

of our very distinguished witnesses. 

But from hearing from Ms. Jo and Ms. Han earlier, we heard 

from people who lived, are survivors, and shame on us, frankly, in 

the Congress, shame on us in the United States and at the United 

Nations, and every other body that cares about human rights and 

the rule of law if we don’t make this the case. This is the case. I 

think the three of you have very eloquently underscored why this 

is the time to act. I deeply appreciate your testimonies because 

they couldn’t come in a more timely fashion. 

So I would like to just ask you if there’s anything else either of 

you would like to add to the record before we conclude this hearing. 

Also, Roberta Cohen, who you, Mr. Scarlatoiu, spoke somewhat 

from her testimony, that her full statement be also made a part of 

the record. 

So if there’s anything you’d like to add, to our distinguished witnesses. Yes, Greg? 

[The written statement of Ms. Cohen appears in the appendix.] 

Mr. SCARLATOIU. Congressman Smith, thank you very much for 

continuing to pay attention to this very important set of issues. 

Our two main challenges as North Korean human rights experts 

and advocates are that North Korean issues are extraordinarily important, but they always compete with other extraordinarily important issues. 

Even when we pay attention to North Korea’s military provocations, missile launches, sinking of South Korean ships, it is very 

difficult to keep North Korean human rights at the top of the agenda. So, once again, thank you so much for your efforts. 

Additionally, I would like to conclude by reminding everyone, 

this point has been made here today, that we the people of the 

United States of America pay for one-third of UNHCR’s budget, 

and thus we should have tremendous leverage when it comes to 

this issue of the North Korean refugees in China. 

Chairman SMITH. Excellent point. 

Mr. SCARLATOIU. Thank you, sir. 

Chairman SMITH. Mr. Kumar? 

Mr. KUMAR. Thank you, Chairman. I would recommend focusing 

on what Mike mentioned about the specific UN mechanism in 

place, which, as I understand, there is no precedent. So, it is better 

to explore that. I wonder whether the Commission, or any other 

committee, can explore it as a study to see whether there is something there. Then if that’s agreeable, then it can start moving in 

that direction. Thank you. 

Chairman SMITH. Mr. Horowitz? 

Mr. HOROWITZ. Mr. Chairman, I am about to flatter you, and I 

think you know me well enough to know that I am not doing it for 

any other reason but that I so deeply believe it. But I will say that 

in Japan there is this tradition of declaring living human beings 

as national treasures. I put you in that category for your persistence on human rights issues and I cannot thank you enough. 

I want to say just one other thing. Again, I want to get back to 

the Reagan point. When Ronald Reagan dealt with the former So-
31 

viet Union, there are these stories of how the Russian Ambassador 

came to the American Secretary of State and said, ‘‘You know, I 

want to talk to the President about missiles and all these real 

issues. Every time I come into his office, all he wants to talk about 

are Pentecostals and Jewish refuseniks. Is he really serious? 

What’s going on here? ’’ 

Secretary Schultz said, ‘‘Listen, I’ve got the same problem. That’s 

what he talks about. If you want to deal with the United States 

you’re going to have to come to term on these human rights issues.’’ 

Reagan cared. But as I said, he was also a union negotiator and 

he understood that that was the means of putting the other side 

on the defensive. He didn’t brag about success, but it’s that sense 

of priority. 

So I want it understood, Mr. Chairman, that your passion for 

human rights is not ‘‘merely’’ because you care about vulnerable 

human beings; it is a shrewd, strategic means of getting better 

deals on the weapons side. Because once we start raising those 

issues, they’ll do anything to keep the issues off the table. That’s 

where they’re vulnerable. 

If we can have, not just voices in the wilderness, but this being 

the real priority interest of the United States in terms of policies, 

as Ronald Reagan dealt with the Soviet Union or Scoop Jackson 

understood, I think we will get better deals on weapons. I think we 

will begin to have a means of peacefully imploding the regime in 

North Korea, of sending a signal to China that keeping this regime 

in business costs them more than it gets them. 

And I will say one last thing about China. Every leader there 

lived through the Cultural Revolution. In personal terms, they understand the evils of North Korea better than anybody else does because they lived through it. Only, what they understand further is 

that this has gone on for 65 years, not for a couple of years. 

The only problem is we haven’t made them pay a price for that. 

Once we begin escalating that price, as Reagan understood in dealing with the Soviet Union, I think they will find it counterproductive in terms of their national interests to continue supporting this regime. So, keep it up, Mr. Chairman, and we will 

have peaceful change in North Korea. Thank you. 

Mr. KUMAR. Congressman, I have just one last thing. 

Chairman SMITH. Yes, Mr. Kumar? 

Mr. KUMAR. Is it possible for the Commission to urge the U.S. 

Ambassador to China, Ambassador Locke, to visit this body and 

submit a report about the plight of North Korean refugees? That 

will add pressure on China and also get an official line from the 

U.S. administration on what they think and what should be done. 

Thank you. 

Chairman SMITH. A very good point, Mr. Kumar. We will explore 

that and ask him if he will do that. All of you have made extraordinary contributions to what we ought to be doing, next steps, as 

well as an understanding of where we are now. I would agree with 

you fully, Mr. Horowitz. I broke my eye teeth on human rights on 

the Soviet Jewry issue. My first trip was to Moscow and Leningrad 

in 1982, the second year of my first term, and I learned very quickly every since then that when human rights are subordinated, put 

on the back bench, that all the other issues, whether it be intellec-
32 

tual property rights or trade agreements of any kind, and especially arms control, they all are weaker, or they are ineffective in 

terms of implementation. 

Get the human rights piece right and all the others follow, not 

the other way around. Unfortunately, the genius of the North Korean Human Rights Act was to mainstay and mainstream the 

human rights issues in North Korea, as we ought to be doing everywhere else, and its implementation has been far less, both 

under Bush as well as under Obama. That needs to be corrected. 

All of you have made very eloquent statements and we will act 

upon them. 

This hearing is adjourned. 

[Whereupon, at 4:27 p.m. the hearing was adjourned.] 
(33) 

A P P E N D I X 
34 

PREPARED STATEMENTS

PREPARED STATEMENT OF SUZANNE SCHOLTE

MARCH 5, 2012

Senator Sherrod Brown and Congressman Chris Smith and Members of the Commission, thank you for so quickly responding to the urgent crisis facing North Korean refugees recently arrested in China. 

Congressman Smith, you will remember that in September you hosted a hearing 

with a North Korean defector, Kim Hye Sook, the longest serving survivor of the 

North Korean political prison camps. She spent twenty eight years in a political 

prison camp. I mention her today because the reason she was jailed at the age of 

13 with her entire family in Bukchang political prison camp, where her brother and 

sister are still imprisoned, was simply because her grandfather allegedly had escaped to South Korea. She is a living example of how the regime retaliates against 

three generations of a family if just one family member flees North Korea. 

As draconian as these measures have been, the current situation is even more 

critical for the North Korean defectors recently arrested in China, most face execution because of three factors. First, the Kim Jung Un regime announced in December that the entire family and relatives should be annihilated if any family member 

fled during the 100 day mourning period following Kim Jong Il’s death. 

Second, among the group of over thirty that were arrested in February are defectors who have family members who have successfully defected to South Korea. In 

fact, the parents of a 19 year old girl arrested in China have pleaded that their 

daughter be allowed to commit suicide rather than be repatriated to North Korea. 

There is also a 71 year old mother, who has a daughter in South Korea, and a mother and her 20 day old baby, as well as a 16 year old boy whose brother is in South 

Korea. In many cases, these refugees are trying desperately to be reunited with 

each other as they are the only survivors of families destroyed by starvation and 

persecution. 

Third, China is providing information to North Korea about the intentions of the 

refugees it has arrested informing the North Korean security agents if these refugees were trying to flee to South Korea. Because of this collusion, the Chinese government is complicit in pre-meditated murder because it knows that those refugees, 

when repatriated to North Korea, face execution. 

By refusing to honor its international treaty commitments and colluding with 

North Korea to repatriate these refugees, China has created a violent and lawless 

situation where eighty percent of North Korean females are subjected to human 

trafficking and North Korean agents are allowed to freely roam around China assassinating humanitarian workers and hunting down refugees. 

Imagine this for a moment: the Chinese government, which wants to be seen as 

a responsible international leader, refuses to allow the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, whose sole purpose is to help nations address refugee problems, access to these refugees but has no problem allowing North Korean spies and 

assassins free reign. 

This collusion between North Korea and China proves most definitely that China 

cannot hide behind its claim that these refugees are economic migrants, and not 

subjected to the international treaties China has signed. 

China knows full well—and has known for decades—that when they force these 

North Koreans back to North Korea they face certain torture, certain imprisonment 

and increasingly execution for fleeing their homeland. 

According to Kim Seong Min of Free North Korea Radio, which has informants 

in both North Korea’s and China’s security operations, China began separating 

North Korean defectors into two groups based on whether they were trying to escape to South Korea starting in at least 2008. We suspect this was part of the crack 

down before the Beijing Olympics and the enormous fear China had about the world 

coming to know about their cruel treatment of North Korean refugees. 

Ju Seong-ha, a reporter for Donga-Ilbo and Kim Yong-hwa, the Representative of 

North Korean Defectors’ Protection Association, both defectors themselves, have described how China uses a different color stamp on the interrogation papers for those 

defectors who were attempting to get to South Korea. 

China is literally marking these refugees for death before they are repatriated. 

We are at a critical point in this fight for the lives of the North Korean refugees 

and urgent action and attention is needed. If we do not convince China to reverse 
35 

its repatriation policy and work with the international community on this issue, the 

refugees in China’s custody face death. 

In closing, I want to cite a number of arguments that should be used to convince 

China that it is in their best interest to follow their international treaty obligations 

and work with the international community. In fact, China is not only causing this 

refugee crisis, but prolonging it. 

First, China fears an increasing flow of refugees if it allows refugees safe passage 

to South Korea, but China’s actions are ensuring that there will always be refugees 

by relieving Kim Jong Un of taking any measures that would improve conditions 

in North Korea. The fact is that North Koreans are fleeing North Korea out of desperation. They know the considerable risk they are taking to flee to China but they 

keep risking their lives to pursue this action out of desperation. Furthermore, most 

North Koreans who have resettled in South Korea and other nations want to go 

back to North Korea once conditions improve in their homeland. China has desired 

that the Kim regime adopt China-style reforms but by forcefully sending fleeing 

North Koreans back to North Korea, China relieves any pressure for Kim to improve 

conditions in North Korea so the citizens do not want to flee. 

Second, China’s future will be much brighter for its people if its government 

works with South Korea rather than kowtows to the dictator in North Korea. The 

two countries celebrate the twentieth anniversary of their diplomatic ties this year 

and enjoy a robust trade relationship. South Korean culture is very popular in 

China, and many Chinese tourists travel to South Korea. Working with South Korea 

on this issue will have a positive benefit to their future relationship because it is 

inevitable that Korea one day will be reunified. With the increasing amount of information flowing into North Korea and more and more North Koreans becoming 

aware of the truth, brutal dictatorship of Kim Jong-Un is doomed to end. 

Third, all the remedies for resolving this issue are immediately at hand to ensure 

no burden on China including a UN sanctioned agency with an office in Beijing, the 

UNHCR; a humanitarian network and a strong commitment from South Korea and 

the United States to help resettle refugees. 

Finally, China needs to be reminded of what this regime really thinks of the Chinese people. Kim Jong il had a long established policy known as ‘‘Block the yellow 

wind’’—as he was resistant to adopting any China style reforms. His racist contempt 

for the Chinese people was evident in his ordering of his border guards to beat the 

bellies of pregnant North Korean females who had been repatriated because their 

unborn babies were half Chinese. 

Now, that more and more people around the world are becoming aware of the 

North Korean refugee crisis and calling upon China not to force these refugees back 

to North Korea, this is a perfect opportunity for China to show great leadership and 

work with the international community, rather than kowtowing to a brutal dictatorship, frequently cited as one of the world’s worst regimes. 

I want to close by recognizing one of your colleagues, Assemblywoman Park Sun 

Young of the Korean National Assembly, who began a hunger strike on February 

21 across the street from the Chinese Embassy in Seoul calling for China not to repatriate these refugees and vowing to continue her vigil until death unless the 

North Korean refugees are allowed safe passage to Seoul. This brave woman collapsed on Friday and was rushed to the hospital. She understands the consequences 

for these refugees, and we hope that parliamentarians as well as governments 

around the world will join her in calling upon China to end their brutal repatriation 

policy and stop sending North Koreans to their death. 

SUBMITTED WITH THIS TESTIMONY

(1) Letter to Hu Jintao by North Korean defector and reporter Seongha Ju, The 

Donga Daily 

(2) ‘‘Kkot Dong San’’ A Hill Filled with Flowers, an essay about the reeducation 

camp where tens of thousands were sent and died following repatriation from China 

(3) Red stamps for those escaping to South Korea for freedom? The behind-thescene deal between China and North Korea 

* * * 
36 

LETTER TO HU JINTAO BY NORTH KOREAN DEFECTOR AND REPORTER SEONGHA JU, 

THE DONGA DAILY

[TRANSLATION OF LETTER PUBLISHED IN DONGA ILBO ON FEBRUARY 14, 2012]

Dear President Hu Jintao, 

The heartrending cry of the family of North Korean refugees arrested in China 

last week, encouraged me to write to you through this newspaper. Now you are the 

only person that can save their life. 

I am also a refugee from North Korea that fled via China to South Korea through 

severe hardships. Feeling, with every fiber of my body and soul, the fear and agony 

of the refugees facing impending repatriation to North Korea, I am desperately writing this letter word by word, hoping this will be the last lifeline to which the arrested can resort. 

China has, to date, repatriated arrested North Korean refugees to Pyongyang, and 

will also do the same this time. 

Mr. President, however, please be noted that Pyongyang’s punishment of the refugees has grown unprecedently and incomparably severe. Of recent, Pyongyang 

deems defection as the most serious menace to their regime, taking the most 

hawkish approach including on-the-spot execution of the refugees on the border. 

The punishment has got even harsher since Kim Jong-Il’s death, and Pyongyang 

reportedly even issued an instruction to annihilate the entire family and relatives 

of the refugees that defected during 100 days’ mourning period. Under such atmosphere, it is as clear as daylight that the refugees will be subject to an exemplary 

execution or imprisonment in the concentration camp for political prisoners, immediately after being taken to North Korea. 

China has been strengthening coordination with North Korea to prevent defection 

in various areas including putting barbed-wire fence on the border, tracking down 

refugees, patrolling the border, detecting the radio wave, etc. 

China’s concern about Pyongyang regime’s stability, is not incomprehensible. No 

matter how it may be, however, by when will you assume the villain role to drive 

refugees to death? By when will you support the regime that cannot control its people without public execution and deadly concentration camps? 

Throughout the last decade, tens of thousands of refugees were taken back from 

China to North Korea, many among whom have passed away from harsh punishment and famine. China also stands liable to their death. When will you realize the 

fact that China is losing North Koreans’ public trust whenever you fell the refugees 

off the cliff of the death one by one? 

Many of the arrested have their family in South Korea. Most of them are sons, 

daughters, parents and siblings of South Koreans. Among them is a teenager who 

has a brother and a sister in South but no other family in North. The brother and 

the sister are shivering like wounded deer in the corner of a room, off all food and 

drink, at the news that their younger brother, who they were to bring to South with 

the money they scraped up with hard shores at the cafeteria. 

Parents of an arrested girl, crying bitterly in front of the South Korea’s Ministry 

of Foreign Affairs and Trade, pleaded to send poison to their daughter if her rescue 

is impossible. They want her to commit suicide in China rather than to be killed 

by cruel punishment in North Korea. Other family’s feeling is just alike. 

Their repatriation to Pyongyang will leave dozens of their family in South Korea 

in lifelong agony, nightmare and sense of guilt. There are tens of thousands of separated families in two Koreas already living like that. How can I describe their pain 

in mere writing? 

Mr. President, this year we have the 20th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and South Korea. Every Korean and the whole 

world are keeping keen eyes on you. Please allow them to meet their family again 

with joy. I desperately ask your generosity. Please let us all applaud you with deep 

appreciation. 

Sincerely Yours, 

Seongha Ju, Reporter of The Donga Daily 

* * * 
37 

‘‘KKOT DONG SAN’’ A HILL FILLED WITH FLOWERS, AN ESSAY ABOUT THE REEDUCATION CAMP WHERE TENS OF THOUSANDS WERE SENT AND DIED FOLLOWING REPATRIATION FROM CHINA

[http://blog.donga.com/nambukstory/archives/23738] 

Sung Ha Joo 2/14/2012 8:00AM 

There is a certain ‘‘Kkot-Dong-San.’’ 

It is a hill by a reeducation camp in Jungsan-kun, Pyong-Nam in North Korea. 

The reeducation camp is an imitation of the Soviet Union’s forced labor camps in 

the past. Those who are sentenced to several years due to attempts at escaping 

must farm under the influence of hunger and ruthless whipping that one can hardly 

imagine. 

If the people in these camps die from hunger or beating, they are buried in the 

Kkot-Dong-San. Tens of thousands of corpses are buried there. Several corpses are 

buried in a single hole, and when it’s full, other corpses were buried over these 

graves. In the winter when the earth is frozen, the burial process becomes merely 

a covering process. The corpses are wrapped in a plastic wrap, and a penicillin bottle with the name and birthday is hung around each corpse’s neck. 

The human skull protruding from the ground as well as pieces of cloth and vinyl 

paper flapping with wind reminds one looking from afar of a flower field, which is 

why the reeducation camp prisoners call the hill ‘‘Kkot-Dong-San.’’ It also reflects 

the prisoners’ desperate wish to get away from hell at least in their deathbed. 

Though often political prisoner camps are considered the epitome of North Korea’s 

human rights violations, the reeducation camps are actually worse. Political prisoners are slaves for life. Slaves are assets. If they only work under the influence 

of whipping, they become very good workers. Products made from political prisoner 

camps are considered to have the best quality of all products in North Korea. 

On the other hand, when they are released from the prisoner camps and enter 

reeducation camps, they are merely ‘‘human trash’’ to the North Korean elites. They 

would prefer seeing these prisoners die from persecution. 

A woman who was arrested and taken to Jungsan reeducation camp in 2000 said 

that among 2000 people with whom she first entered the camp, only 200 people 

were still living after 7 months. It is the same with other reeducation camps. North 

Korean defectors who were in charge of disposing corpses in 1998 for six months 

said that they disposed of 859 corpses in total. 

The majority will die due to malnutrition. In a reeducation camp, other living 

things such as rats and insects are on the verge of extinction because the prisoners 

put whatever they see alive into their mouths. 

In reeducation camps, the day that one will finally die is estimated by a fist. If 

a fist can go in between your crack vertically, you are on your way to dying, if a 

fist can go in horizontally, you are dying, and if a fist can go in in both ways, you 

will not survive. 

Just like that, I know so well what it is to be dying. I had also failed escaping 

and been classified as a political prisoner. As a result, I frequented the security department’s torture chambers, prisons, and labor camps. Only when I was on the 

verge of death, weighing only 90 lbs, was I released. 

After I came to South Korea, I have been writing about North Korea for 10 years. 

Many times I cried because I had experienced the same pain that other North Koreans are experiencing. To me, North Korea is pain and tears. I cannot step away 

from my keyboard if I think about my fellow North Koreans who are suffering and 

dying. 

I received a list of North Korean refugees recently arrested in China. O, how painful. . . 

Kim Jung Un declared that anyone defecting after Kim Jung Il died will have his 

or her family killed down to three generations. China does not feel guilty at all even 

after pushing the North Korean refugees close to death. The picture of ‘‘Kkot-DongSan’’ where crows linger above the sad faces of those being sent back to North Korea 

is vivid in my mind. 

I plead to you not just as a reporter, but also as a person who has experienced 

what a Hell is. If you happen to see an idol worship or group gymnastics performance and waves of other flowers in Pyongyang, please remember the labor reeducation camp ‘‘Kkotdongsan.’’ Please don’t forget the nameless dead who are being 

wrapped and buried in ‘‘Kkoddongsan.’’ 

Even if it’s only once in a while. . . Please . . .. 

* * * 
38 

RED STAMPS FOR THOSE ESCAPING TO SOUTH KOREA FOR FREEDOM? THE BEHINDTHE-SCENE DEAL BETWEEN CHINA AND NORTH KOREA

[http://blog.donga.com/nambukstory/archives/24333] 

2012/02/22 8:00 am Sungha Joo 

It is discovered that in the process of deporting the North Korean refugees back 

to North Korea, the Chinese government has been informing to the North Korean 

government whether the captured refugees had escaped North Korea to head to 

South Korea or not. 

There is a high possibility that the North Korean refugees who intended to escape 

to South Korea will either be detained in a political prisoners camp or be executed 

after they are deported. It was the North Korean government that told the Chinese 

government to determine the refugees’ intended destinations. 

The Tumen Public Security Bureau in China announced on the 21st that the Chinese Public Security Bureau has been receiving natural resources such as logs and 

minerals from North Korea in return for deportation of the refugees back to North 

Korea. 

They (Tumen Public Security Bureau) said that ‘‘Recently China has been informing North Korea about the refugees intending to head to South Korea by using different colors of stamp on the files’’. 

China has been using different colors of stamp that they agreed upon with North 

Korea each month, for example red in January and blue in February, instead of 

writing down ‘‘to South Korea’’, in order to avoid leaving obvious evidence that they 

have been assisting North Korea. 

It is reported that due to the enlarging issue about refugees beyond the nation, 

China came up with this idea of using different colors of stamp to inform North 

Korea if the refugees were heading to South Korea. 

When China had a good relationship with North Korea, they even handed over 

all the interrogation files to North Korea and moreover, during the late 1990’s, it 

is witnessed that a North Korean investigator, disguised as a Chinese investigator, 

came over to China and interrogated the refugees. 

The former North Korean lieutenant and the director of a North Korean broadcasting station, Sungmin Kim, said on the 21st that when he was being interrogated, ‘‘I was criticizing the political system of North Korea to a Chinese investigator who seemed to be compassionate and understanding, but later when I was 

being deported back to North Korea, the same man welcomed me back not as a Chinese investigator but as a North Korean personnel agent’’. 

If China does not inform North Korea about the refugees’ intent to escape to 

South Korea, the refugees will have a better chance in living even after they get 

deported. Since it is difficult for the North Korean refugee investigators to go over 

to China to investigate, the refugees only need to deny that they were intending on 

fleeing to South Korea and endure the tortures but could still spare their lives. 

However, it is relatively easy to find out about the destinations of the refugees 

in China because the refugees hoping to head to South Korea are taken under custody along with the people who help them to their freedom. 

It is reported that the Chinese government has been assisting in capturing the 

refugees and handpicked those who are to be executed and in return, they received 

logs and minerals from North Korea. 

The bitter refugees witnessed that the compensations for the refugees change 

from time to time, but usually they consist of logs from Mt. Baekdu and iron ore 

from Musan mine. The exchange of the refugees and the natural resources started 

since 1998 and has continued until now like a tradition. 

China sends back arrested North Korean refugees mainly through Tumen (located 

on the opposite side of Du-Man River in On-Sung, North Hamkyung Province) and 

Dandong (located on the opposite side of Ap-Nok River in Shin-ee, North Pyong-An 

Province). They also use any other bridges that connect China and North Korea. 

Even at just Tumen, more than 3,000 refugees have been deported back to North 

Korea within a year. From this, it is estimated that more than 5,000 refugees are 

deported back to North Korea every year. 

The Chinese government detains the refugees at the Tumen prisoner camp and 

when the camp fills up, they transport the refugees back to North Korea once or 

twice a week by buses. In the past, they used military trucks for the transportation, 

but since a lot of the refugees took their own lives by throwing themselves out the 

truck into the river at the bordering bridges, they changed trucks to buses. 

Typically, refugees who are captured around Tumen like Yanji are deported back 

within two weeks, but if the refugees are captured somewhere farther away, the in-
39 

vestigation takes longer. Tumen prisoner camp is meant for foreign criminals, but 

there are only refugees there now. 

In this camp, North Korean refugees are repeatedly beaten and sexually harassed 

while they are stricken with fear before repatriation. North Korean refugees who 

have already experienced this prisoner camp said that at times, on the pretense of 

delaying repatriation, the camp officials rape the prisoners. 

PREPARED STATEMENT OF SONGHWA HAN

MARCH 5, 2012

Hello, my name is Song Hwa Han and I came to the United States with my two 

daughters in 2008 as refugees, following the passage of the North Korean Human 

Rights Act in the United States Congress in 2004. The lowest class of people in 

North Korea have a most desperate and earnest plea. That plea is to be freed and 

liberated to freedom of human rights from the worst suffering and pain of starvation. I want to thank God and the United States Government for hearing our plea 

for hope and giving us freedom. I want to just describe very briefly my reasons for 

leaving North Korea. 

I escaped with my two daughters from North Korea for the first time in 1998. Before defection from North Korea, my family consisted of eight people. My mother 

and my two month old new-born baby son died from starvation. My oldest daughter, 

who was 18 years old at that time, left home to find food, and never came back; 

to this day I do not know of her whereabouts, or what happened to her. I had another five year old son, who I had to leave at an acquaintance’s home before I escaped to China. I promised my son, ‘‘If you just sleep for five nights, I will be back 

with rice and candy, and I will come back to get you.’’ Afterwards, my five year old 

son, who was suffering from malnutrition, was kicked out of the house I had put 

him in, and died while waiting and crying out, ‘Mommy, sister! When are you coming back . . . ’’ He cried and cried and died in a grass field; this news was delivered 

to me by someone I had hired to go and bring my son to China. 

My husband was arrested and sent to jail for the crime of crossing the Tumen 

River and going to China and bringing back a sack of rice, when what he had done 

was simply to go to China to find food for his children and save them, who had slowly over time grown weaker and weaker from starvation. He died while incarcerated 

in prison, from the severe punishment he received. Afterwards, my family was labeled as ‘anti-state’ traitors, for having crossed over to China, and the North Korean 

police and the ‘‘bowibu’’ (National Security Agency) agents came to look for us in 

our countryside village home. They came to kick us out of the village, for me to take 

the remaining family members and move away to another place. Our family had devoted ourselves to the Party and to the Dear Leader, but contrary to the police in 

the United States, instead of protecting the citizens, the North Korean police threatened to burn down our house if we did not move out. I could no longer beg for help 

or for mercy. I decided right then and there. Rather than staying put and starving 

to death, even if we die trying to go find our way to freedom, I decided to seek out 

freedom! My one sole wish was to feed my children just one meal of while rice, and 

decided that I would never suffer from starvation or be unfairly mistreated and 

therefore took my seven year old daughter who was malnourished and was not 

growing up properly, put her in a sack and carried her, and held my older daughter’s hand and leaned on one another and crossed the waist-high currents of the 

Tumen River and safely escaped from North Korea. 

After escaping to China and living in fear for almost ten years, during that period 

we were forcibly repatriated four times. During one of those forced repatriations, I 

would just like to share about my experience from the time I was forcibly repatriated during the summer of 2003. 

First of all, once a North Korean defector was handed over by the Chinese police 

to the North Korean ‘‘bowibu’’, one had to become an animal, and secondly, the defectors who are repatriated are ordered by the North Korea guards that ‘‘You are 

all dogs from now on, so therefore lower your head and move around by only looking 

at the ground.’’ The prisoners are handcuffed and chained to one another, and if the 

slightest noise is made, the prisoners are beaten with rifle butts. After the interrogation is finished at the ‘‘bowibu’’, the prisoners are taken to a reform labor camp. 

Where I was sent, we were forced to work from 5 in the morning until late at night, 

and after dragging our dead-tired bodies back from work we were given only a fistsize corn-riceball to eat, and until 11pm in the evening we were required to participate in self-reflection and self-criticism group meetings. We would then spend the 

rest of the night sitting in front of one another and picking off the ticks and lice 
40 

from our clothes and our hair, and then sleep for a few hours, and then wake up 

early in the morning to the wakeup call and then get dragged out for more labor. 

These punishments are repeated for as long as six months, and like my husband 

who died from malnutrition and starvation and the women prisoners who collapsed 

from fatigue and could not get up again, women and men alike had to carry heavy 

logs up to the mountainside and if a prisoner became injured there was no recourse 

for medicine or medical care. In the wintertime, there were no proper footwear, so 

pieces of cloth and strings would be used to cover up the feet and while working 

in the snow many would come down with frostbite, but we could not stop work and 

had to continue working, and also continue to work the following day. Sometimes 

the men had to shovel human waste with their own bare hands. The women prisoners would then carry the human waste mixed with dirt on their back and carry 

the load onto the fields. So for the crime of going to China for only wanting to live 

and not die from starvation, North Korean refugees who are repatriated by China 

become prisoners and end up suffering under crushing labor doing construction 

work or coal mining work, and become sick or injured, or worse, suffer in misery 

and pain and die while working under horrendous conditions; the wretched and poor 

North Korean refugees continue to suffer like this and the misery is never-ending. 

For the crime of betraying the nation, in the ‘‘bowibu’’ prisons the North Korean 

refugee men who were forcibly repatriated were beaten with steel pipes, and countless people died from the beatings inflicted on them where arms and legs were broken. I myself was beaten in the head for the crime of having gone over to China, 

and I was beaten so severely that my skull still has pieces of bone embedded in my 

head. Besides this injury, because I was beaten so severely and punched around so 

much my eyes became swollen, and one of my ear drums ruptured, and to his day, 

I am hard of hearing in one ear. While we were suffering from thirst there was no 

water to drink, and the prisoners would end up drinking foul water from water 

tanks or wells, and contract dysentery and die without any care or treatment given 

to them. 

North Korean refugees, if they are miraculously able to survive and released from 

prison or from the reform labor camps, will attempt to escape from North Korea 

even if it means death if caught again. Through this Hearing today I earnestly 

plead and beg of you. Refugees of other countries have been accepted in the U.S. 

numbering in the tens of thousands of people, but after the North Korean Human 

Rights Act passed in 2004, only about 130 North Korean refugees have been granted 

asylum in the United States. 

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. Please help us North Korean refugees. 

Thank you. 

PREPARED STATEMENT OF JINHYE JO

MARCH 5, 2012

Hello my name is Jinhye Jo and I am a North Korean defector. 

I want to first extend my greeting of deep appreciation to God, the United States 

Government, and the American people for allowing me the freedom to speak before 

you at this place, and also for the fact that I am living in America, a place which 

is like heaven to me. In North Korea one could not dream of going to Pyongyang 

freely unless you were a part of the inner circle of Kim Jong Il. However I am now 

living in the Washington, D.C. area, the capital of the United States, and I am here 

today to make an earnest request. 

With a desire to fill our hungry stomachs, we escaped to China to seek the freedom that my mother spoke of. However, what awaited us were the Chinese police 

and security officials who were obsessed with searching for and arresting North Korean defectors, and human traffickers who did not see a mother of two children but 

rather a source of money-making. My sister and I were young and naive and were 

just so glad to be able to eat white rice, but we always lived in fear that one morning when we woke up our mother would be taken somewhere to be sold, or that she 

would abandon us and leave us. By chance I happened to find God and became a 

Christian at a small countryside church, and through the grace of God and his protection, even though I was forcibly repatriated four times to North Korea, I did not 

die from beatings, I did not die from starvation, and I was able to survive and live. 
41 

The North Korean ‘‘bowibu’’, or National Security Agency officials, strip search the 

defector women who are sent back, searching every article of clothing to look for 

hidden money. If nothing of value is found among the clothing, the prisoners who 

are standing are told to put their hands on their head and forced to sit and stand 

up repeatedly until they collapse from exhaustion, and if they do collapse, they are 

relentlessly slapped. An elderly grandmother who was 65 years old and next to me 

in the interrogation cell said she could not move any further, and she was immediately and mercilessly slapped and beaten, while another young girl and I had our 

heads bashed against the wall repeatedly. After the interrogation was over and 

while in transit to the prison cells, one of the prisoners had talked back to the security guard and we were then mercilessly kicked by the guard, who was wearing 

boots. We were placed in cells that were crawling with insects, and while trying to 

sleep at night, because the space was so limited, we literally had to sleep on top 

of other prisoners. 

As a woman it is hard for me to describe what I saw and experienced, but I want 

to speak out today with courage for the countless North Korean refugees who have 

suffered under North Korea’s evil and its violation of human rights. North Korean 

refugees swallow money wrapped in plastic when escaping to China. During arrest 

by the Chinese authorities and forced repatriation to North Korea and going to a 

prison, the money that is expelled naturally through defecation is peeled of its soiled 

plastic and swallowed again. Another way of hiding money for women is to hide the 

money in the womb or, in the anus. There was an incident at the ‘‘bowibu’’ facility 

in Sinuiju, North Korea where a 16 year old girl’s hymen ruptured and she was 

hemorrhaging blood. The ‘‘bowibu’’ agent used a rubber glove to check for money or 

contraband in her vagina and due to the reckless searching the agent had ruptured 

her hymen. In their quest to search for money and rob the prisoners, they stopped 

at nothing, using all kinds of methods and means to do so. A lot of the women prisoners also attempted to give the money they took pains to hide to the security 

agents with the hope of being shown leniency or being let go. 

I remember vividly what happened to a North Korean refugee woman who was 

pregnant with a baby conceived with a Chinese man, who was repatriated. The head 

‘‘bowibu’’ security agent cussed profanities at her, yelling at this woman that she 

was a ‘‘bitch who carried Chinese seed’’. He then proceeded to torture and beat her 

with steel hooks by hitting her on the side and the head, and forcing her to sit and 

stand repeated for five hundred times, until she collapsed. The North Korean agents 

continue to pour out obscenities at the woman lying on the floor, and after they 

picked her up and sat her down on the floor, the agents then beat her in the head 

with a wooden block and caused her nose to bleed, and her blood splattered all 

around her in the interrogation room. I saw this with my own eyes. Besides this 

one example, there were situations where we were bitten by bugs and we suffered 

from inflammation; when the temperature got so cold and some prisoners were crying out in pain from frostbitten feet, the security guards would punish everyone in 

the cell. 

When my family was repatriated for the last time, my mother was hauled to be 

tortured. Hearing our mother’s blood-curdling screams, my sister and I froze instantly with fear, as if our hearts stopped. The head ‘‘bowibu’’ agent began to torment and scare us by saying that if we told the truth, our mother would not be hit. 

Despite this we didn’t dare open our mouths; he grabbed our heads by our hair and 

began hitting us. The pain that was inflicted on us was so bad we could not lay 

our head down properly to sleep for about two weeks. 

Another form of punishment and torture I received in the interrogation room was 

where I was forced to kneel down and a wooden plank was placed between my 

thighs and between my bent legs; every time I answered ‘‘NO’’ to a question I was 

kicked and that would cause me to bowl over. The plank that was placed was tremendously painful, and this was one way that I was tortured. Other forms of beatings and torture that I received after being forcibly repatriated by the Chinese authorities were in one instance, where I was forced to stand on tip-toes and then mercilessly kicked and beaten; kicked and beaten to unconsciousness while forced to 

kneel, and then the security agents would wake me up with water splashed from 

an ashtray. My own mother was beaten in the head with a log so harshly, pieces 

of her skull cracked, and because she was also severely beaten with fists by the security agents, her eardrum ruptured and to this day she is hard of hearing in one 

ear. All these methods of severe and cruel punishment were to try to find out 

whether the North Korean refugees had attempted to eventually escape to South 

Korea, or whether they had attended church or come into contact with Christians 

while in China. Our family I believe was miraculously saved through God’s special 

grace and mercy. I also believe that God saved me so that I would be able to tell 
42 

the world the plight of the North Korean people’s unfair suffering, and the worst 

modern-day evil that is going on right now. 

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. 

I sincerely and earnestly request all of you here today, and for those throughout 

the world who will hear this Hearing, that the good fortune and privilege we have 

now of living in freedom, will become a reality for those more than 30 North Korean 

refugees currently being held by China, only through your combined attention and 

effort. I sincerely and earnestly request that you will help save the precious lives 

of these more than 30 North Korean refugees, lives that are more precious than 

anything in this world, through talking with the Government of China, even as they 

are pushing down people who are drowning and reaching out their hands to be rescued. 

China & North Korea, Stop Killing People!!! 

Thank you. 

PREPARED STATEMENT OF T. KUMAR

MARCH 5, 2012

Thank you Mr. Chairman and member of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China, Amnesty International is pleased to testify at this important hearing 

on China’s repatriation of North Korean refugees. 

Amnesty International have been closely monitoring the plight of North Korean 

refugees in China for over a decade and have published reports on the treatment 

of North Korean refugees by the Chinese authorities, reasons why North Koreans 

flee their country and the abuses faced by North Korean refugees forcibly returned 

to North Korea. 

Despite China being a Permanent Member of the UN Security Council and a state 

party to the UN Refugee Convention; with respect to North Korean border-crossers 

residing without legal documentation, China completely disregards its commitments 

to and obligations under the international system. China denies these North Koreans the enjoyment of full protection of their human rights and refugee rights in 

China. 

Chinese authorities forcibly returns North Korean border-crossers back to North 

Korea where they face risk to their lives. By its actions, it intimidates North Korean 

border-crossers and those who are helping them in China. China refuses to give access to the UN refugee agency, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). 

Those individuals apprehended by Chinese border police and North Korean authorities in China are reportedly detained in China for several days and then forcibly returned to their country where they are at risk of punishment including arbitrary detention, forced labor, and in some cases, the death penalty for leaving the 

country without authorization. 

BACKGROUND

The acute food shortages in North Korea since the early 1990s have forced tens 

of thousands of people to cross the border ‘‘illegally’’ into China’s north-eastern provinces. According to NGOs, journalists and aid workers who have visited the region, 

thousands of North Koreans are currently residing in border areas. 

Amnesty International believes that all North Korean in China are entitled to refugee status because of threat of human rights violations if they were to be returned 

to North Korea against their will. 

The North Korean authorities criminalize the act of leaving the country without 

State approval and consider it a political offence, even though the motive for leaving 

the country may simply be one of survival. This along with harsh punishments faced 

by those who are returned would indicate that almost all North Korean who flee 

are at risk of facing severe abuses once returned. 

Their plight is made even more precarious by reports suggesting a January 2012 

announcement by the North Korean authorities condemning border-crossers and 

threatening them with severe punishments. The announcement comes at a time 

when North Korea’s leadership is in transition. 
43 

Amnesty International is concerned that this reported denouncement of bordercrossers could signal a crackdown against any potential dissent at this key time in 

North Korea. Additionally, those who are forcibly returned now may face even 

harsher punishment than usual. 

North Korean authorities refuse to recognize or grant access to international 

human rights monitors, including Amnesty International and the UN Special 

Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Democratic People’s Republic 

of Korea (North Korea). 

REPATRIATION AND THE PRINCIPLE OF NON-REFOULEMENT

Article 33 (1) of the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees, states 

that: 

No Contracting State shall expel or return (’refouler’) a refugee in any manner whatsoever to the frontiers of territories where his life or freedom would 

be threatened on account of his race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion. 

International law prohibits the forcible return, either directly or indirectly, of any 

individuals to a country where they are at risk of persecution, torture or other illtreatment, or death. 

CHINA-NORTH KOREA BILATERAL AGREEMENT

According to a White Paper published by the South Korean think-tank KINU in 

2011, ‘‘North Korea’s State Safety Protection Agency and China’s Public Safety 

Agency have been enforcing strict controls over the movement of their citizens 

across the border based on the ‘‘Bilateral Agreement on Mutual Cooperation for the 

Maintenance of State Safety and Social Order’’ (July 1998). 

PLIGHT OF NORTH KOREAN REFUGEES IN CHINA

Despite significant risks, thousands of North Koreans illegally cross the border 

into China every year. China considers all undocumented North Koreans to be economic migrants, rather than as asylum seekers, and forcibly returns them to North 

Korea if they are caught. 

North Koreans residing ‘‘illegally’’ in China live in appalling conditions and are 

vulnerable to physical, emotional and sexual exploitation. North Koreans living in 

China live in constant fear of being caught detained by Chinese authorities and forcibly returned to China. 

North Korean border-crossers in China are in a very precarious situation. Some 

find shelter in villages and farms where they are supported by China’s ethnic Korean community and ethnic Chinese people, several work in the service industry but 

are vulnerable to exploitation and discrimination given their lack of legal status to 

reside in China. Others are forced into begging. 

Surveillance and checking for ‘‘illegal’’ North Koreans in China have intensified 

and there have been even reports of North Korean authorities crossing the border 

to ‘‘detain’’ some North Korean border-crossers and ‘‘abduct’’ them back to North 

Korea. 

North Koreans in China are denied their right to seek and enjoy asylum from persecution. Although China is a party to the Refugee Convention, NGOs and other advocates for North Korean asylum-seekers in China say that it is virtually impossible 

for North Koreans to access refugee determination procedures with UNHCR, or be 

afforded protection as a group. 

According to several reports Amnesty International has received from NGOs and 

contacts in Japan, South Korea, Europe and the USA, China regularly returns 

North Koreans back to their country of origin without giving them the opportunity 

to make a claim for asylum and without making an objective and informed decision 

that the North Koreans would be protected against serious human rights abuses in 

North Korea. 

The Government of China have on occasion also arrested and imprisoned NGO 

activists—most of whom are South Korean or Japanese nationals—and others who 

have been attempting to help North Koreans to leave China and reach South Korea. 

WHAT HAPPENS TO THE NORTH KOREAN BORDER-CROSSERS REPATRIATED FROM CHINA?

Detention 

According to testimonies from North Korean border-crossers, all those forcibly repatriated from China are detained and interrogated in detention centers or police 

stations operated by the National Security Agency or the People’s Safety Agency. 

The detainees are often subjected to torture. 
44 

There appear to be several factors that influence the severity of the punishment 

meted out to North Koreans who have been forcibly returned from China. After the 

interrogation, ‘‘depending on the number of times the person had been in China, depending on their background (if the person had been serving in the military or was 

a government official, then the interrogation and sentencing appear to be more severe) and if the authorities have been convinced that the detainees are not ‘politically dangerous’, they are sent to a village unit labor camp, where they spend between three months and three years in forced labor. 

If the North Korean border-crossers are considered to be politically sensitive such 

as serving or retired government officials or military personnel, they are at risk of 

being sent to a political prison camp. 

North Korean border-crossers who have been in touch with South Korean nationals or with religious groups while in China are at great risk of being sent to political 

prison camps. 

Execution 

In 2011, Amnesty International reported testimonies of former detainees at political prison camp 15 at Yodok, that prisoners are forced to work in conditions approaching slavery and are frequently subjected to torture and other cruel, inhuman, 

or degrading treatment. All those interviewed had witnessed public executions. 

WOMEN

Women suffer particularly because of the social roles ascribed to them. Women 

are generally responsible for finding food for their families, and in times of scarcity 

often have the last call on food within a household. Many have been forced to roam 

the countryside in search of food, medicine and other daily necessities. A large proportion of those crossing the border into China for these purposes are women. 

In its 2003 concluding observations on North Korea, the Committee on Economic, 

Social and Cultural Rights expressed its concern about the: ‘‘persistence of traditional attitudes and practices prevailing . . . with regard to women that negatively 

affect their enjoyment of economic, social and cultural rights. The Committee is concerned about the lack of domestic legislation on non-discrimination against women 

and about the persistence of de facto inequality . . .’’ 

Information received by Amnesty International indicates that a growing number 

of women have been forced to turn to prostitution to feed themselves and their hungry families. 

Amnesty International has also documented an increase in the number of North 

Korean women being trafficked to China by Chinese bride traffickers where they are 

sold on to ethnic Korean farmers of Chinese nationality who have difficulty finding 

wives. 

CHILDREN

The Committee on Rights of the Child expressed concern in June 2004 at reports 

of North Korean street children in Chinese border towns. It was also deeply concerned at reports that children (and their families) returning or forcibly returned 

back to North Korea were considered by the North Korea government not as victims 

but as perpetrators of a crime. 

NORTH KOREAN LAW

North Koreans who flee their country are usually considered by their government 

to be traitors and/or criminals if they leave North Korea without official permission. 

Article 47 of the 1987 North Korean Criminal Code states that: 

A citizen of the Republic who defects to a foreign country or to the enemy in 

betrayal of the country and the people...shall be committed to a reform institution for not less than seven years. In cases where the person commits an extremely grave concern, he or she shall be given the death penalty . . . 

Article 117 states: 

A person who crosses a frontier of the Republic without permission shall be 

committed to a reform institution for up to three years. 

The North Korean law which prohibits unauthorized departure is in clear breach 

of the fundamental right to leave one’s own country. Article 12 (2) of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), to which North Korea is 

a state party, states that ‘‘(e)veryone shall be free to leave any country, including 

his own.’’ 

North Koreans who ‘‘illegally’’ cross or help others in crossing the North Korean 

border face heavy penalties. Under Article 117 of the Criminal Code, a person who 
45 

illegally crosses ‘‘a frontier of the Republic’’ faces a sentence of up to three years 

in a kwalliso (a political prison camp). 

In a 2006 media briefing, ‘‘North Korea: Human rights concerns’’, Amnesty International stated that the large numbers of North Korean border-crossers being forcibly repatriated back from China have caused the North Korean government to ease 

sentences and change the penal code. The 1999 version of the penal code distinguished between ‘‘unlawful border crossing’’ and crossing ‘‘with the intent to overturn the Republic’’. 

The 2004 revision of the North Korean penal code further distinguishes between 

‘‘crossing’’ and ‘‘frequent crossings’’. According to the latter version, ‘‘frequent crossing’’ of the border without permission is a criminal act punishable by up to two 

years in labor camps (three years in the 1999 version). 

Acts of treason, such as ‘‘surrendering, changing allegiance, [and] handing over 

confidential information’’, are punishable by five to ten years of hard labor, or ten 

years to life in more serious cases. 

RECOMMENDATIONS

The Government of China should: 

• Stop immediately all operations by Chinese and the North Korean officials 

aimed at apprehending and intimidating North Korean border-crossers and 

those who are helping them in China. 

• Respect its obligations under international human rights and refugee law. 

This includes protecting the fundamental human rights of all North Koreans on 

its territory. In particular, asylum-seekers should have access to a fair, satisfactory and individual refugee status determination procedure. 

• North Korean asylum-seekers should be given access to the UNHCR so that 

their claims for protection can be independently and impartially assessed. Persons found to be refugees under a fair and satisfactory procedure should have 

access to effective respect for their fundamental human rights, including their 

economic, social and cultural rights. 

• In accordance with the customary norm of non-refoulement and its obligations 

under the Convention against Torture and the Refugee Convention, the Government of China should not forcibly return any North Korean to North Korea who 

may be subject to serious human rights abuses, including imprisonment, torture, execution or other punishment inflicted for leaving the country without 

authorization. 

• Immediately end all bilateral re-admission agreements [with North Korea] 

which deny asylum-seekers and refugees access to a fair and satisfactory asylum-procedure and effective and durable protection from refoulement. 

• Lift restrictions on access to the border areas with North Korea for the 

UNHCR, independent human rights monitors and other independent observers, 

agencies and organizations. 

The Government of North Korea should: 

• Respect the right to freedom of movement for all North Koreans, especially 

to ensure that they have adequate access to food. The North Korean government should not punish individuals whose only crime is to try and feed their 

family. 

• The North Korean government should, especially, refrain from punishing its 

citizens who have moved to other countries, in particular for humanitarian reasons, and refrain from treating their departure as criminal or even as treason 

leading to punishments of imprisonment, inhuman or degrading treatment or 

the death penalty. 

• Stop all executions. 

• Respect the right of access to information—including by allowing independent 

news media to publish and broadcast and by granting free and unimpeded access to media outlets—so that ordinary people are aware of the gravity of the 

food situation and of their human rights. 

• Allow independent international human rights monitors. 

The Government of the United States should: 

(1) Raise North Korean refugee protection issues in all its meetings with the 

Chinese Government, including during the annual Security and Economic Dialogue and Human Rights Dialogue. 

(2) Ensure that the Government of China respects its obligations under international law, including respecting the fundamental principle of non-refoulement, 

by not forcibly repatriating North Korean Refugees. 
46 

(3) Urge the Chinese Government to stop arresting and intimidating North 

Korean refugees. 

(4) Urge the Chinese Government to fulfill its obligations under the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees, including respect for the right of 

North Koreans to seek and enjoy asylum. 

(5) Urge the North Korean Government not to punish North Korean refugees 

brought back to North Korea. 

(6) Help resettle North Korean refugees. 

Thank you for inviting Amnesty International to testify in this hearing. 

PREPARED STATEMENT OF GREG SCARLATOIU

MARCH 5, 2012

Good afternoon, Chairman Smith, Cochairman Brown, and members of the Commission. On behalf of the Committee for Human Rights in North Korea, thank you 

for inviting me to speak with you at this hearing today. Our Committee considers 

it essential to draw attention to the case of 30 to 40 North Koreans who have been 

arrested by China and who now risk being forcibly returned to North Korea where 

they most assuredly will be subjected to severe punishment in violation of international refugee and human rights law. The fundamental right to leave a country, 

to seek asylum abroad and not to be forcibly returned to conditions of danger are 

internationally recognized rights which China and North Korea must be obliged to 

respect. 

Mr. Chair, the Committee for Human Rights in North Korea is a Washington DCbased non-governmental organization, established in 2001. Our Committee’s main 

statement has been prepared by Chair Roberta Cohen, who was unable to be here 

today. I will draw upon that statement in my opening remarks. 

Over the past two decades, considerable numbers of North Koreans have risked 

their lives to cross the border into China. They have done so because of starvation, 

economic deprivation or political persecution. It is estimated that there are thousands or tens of thousands in China today. Most are vulnerable to forced returns 

where they will face persecution and punishment because leaving North Korea without permission is a criminal offense. Yet to China, all North Koreans are economic 

migrants, and over the years, it has forcibly returned tens of thousands to conditions of danger. According to the testimonies and reports received by the Committee 

for Human Rights, the North Koreans returned to their country endure cruel and 

inhuman punishment including beatings, torture, detention, forced labor, sexual violence, and in the case of women suspected of become pregnant in China, forced abortions or infanticide. Some have even been executed. 

We therefore submit that North Koreans in China merit international refugee 

protection for the following reasons: First, a definite number of those who cross the 

border may do so out of a well founded fear of persecution on political, social or religious grounds that would accord with the 1951 Refugee Convention. Second, the 

reasons why these North Koreans flee to China go beyond the economic realm. 

Those who cross the border into China for reasons of economic deprivation are often 

from poorer classes, without access to the food and material benefits enjoyed by the 

privileged political elite. Subject to North Korea’s songbun classification system, 

their quest for economic survival may be based on political persecution. Examining 

such cases in a refugee determination process might establish that certain numbers 

crossing into China for economic survival merit refugee status. Third, and by far 

the most compelling argument why North Koreans should not be forcibly returned 

is that most if not all fit the category of refugees sur place. As defined by the UN 

High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), refugees sur place are persons who 

might not have been refugees when they left their country but who become refugees 

at a later date because they have a valid fear of persecution upon return. North Koreans who leave their country for reasons including economic motives have valid 

reasons for fearing persecution and punishment upon return. Accordingly, UNHCR 

has urged China not to forcibly return North Koreans and has proposed a special 

humanitarian status for them so that they can obtain temporary documentation and 

access to services and not be repatriated. 

China, however, has refused to allow UNHCR access to North Koreans in border 

areas where it could set up a screening process. It considers itself bound by an 

agreement it made with North Korea in 1986 obliging both countries to prevent ‘‘illegal border crossings,’’ which replaced an earlier 1960 agreement. It also stands by 

its local law in Jilin province (1993) which requires the return of North Koreans 

who enter illegally. Both documents stand in violation of China’s obligations under 
47 

the 1951 Refugee Convention (which it signed in 1982), its membership in UNHCR’s 

Executive Committee (EXCOM), and the human rights agreements it has ratified. 

These include the Convention against Torture, which prohibits the return of persons 

to states where they could be subjected to torture, and the Convention on the Rights 

of the Child, which prohibits the return of unaccompanied children to countries 

where they could be irreparably harmed. 

It is reported that some local Chinese officials have at times provided documents 

to North Korean women married to Han Chinese, which allows them and their children some form of protection and access to medical and educational services. Such 

practices should be encouraged but they are not Chinese policy or law. Most North 

Koreans in China have no rights and are vulnerable to exploitation, forced marriages and trafficking as well as to forced returns where they will face persecution 

and punishment. Our Committee’s report Lives for Sale: Personal Accounts of 

Women Fleeing North Korea to China, 2010, documents the experiences of North Korean women in China and the extreme lack of protection for them. 

To encourage China to fulfill its international obligations to North Koreans on its 

territory, our Committee puts forward the following recommendations: 

First, the United States Congress should consider additional hearings on the 

plight of North Koreans who cross into China to keep a spotlight on the issue and 

try to avert forced repatriations to conditions of danger. 

Second, members of Congress should consider supporting the efforts of the Parliamentary Forum for Democracy, established in 2010, so that joint inter-parliamentary efforts can be mobilized in a number of countries on behalf of the North Koreans in danger in China. 

Third, the United States should encourage UNHCR to raise its profile on this 

issue. It further should lend its full support to UNHCR’s appeals and proposals to 

China and mobilize other governments to do likewise in order to make sure that 

the provisions of the 1951 Refugee Convention are upheld and the work of this important UN agency enhanced. 

Fourth, together with other concerned governments, the United States should give 

priority to raising the forced repatriation of North Koreans with Chinese officials 

but in the absence of a response, should bring the issue before international refugee 

and human rights fora. UNHCR’s Executive Committee as well as the UN Human 

Rights Council and General Assembly of the United Nations should all be expected 

to call on China by name to carry out its obligations under refugee and human 

rights law and enact legislation to codify these obligations so that North Koreans 

will not be expelled if their lives or freedom are in danger. 

Fifth, the United States should consider promoting a multilateral approach to the 

problem of North Koreans leaving their country. Their exodus affects more than 

China. It concerns South Korea most notably, whose Constitution offers citizenship 

to North Koreans. Countries in East and Southeast Asia, East and West Europe as 

well as Mongolia and the United States are also affected. Together with UNHCR, 

a multilateral approach should be designed that finds solutions for North Koreans 

based on principles of non-refoulement and human rights and humanitarian protection. International burden sharing has been introduced for other refugee populations 

and could be developed here. 

Sixth, the United States should consider ways to enhance its readiness to increase 

the number of North Korean refugees and asylum seekers admitted to this country. 

Other countries should be encouraged as well to take in more North Korean refugees and asylum seekers until such time as they no longer face persecution and 

punishment in their country. 

Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and members of the Commission. I look forward to answering any questions you might have. 

PREPARED STATEMENT OF HON. CHRIS SMITH, A U.S. REPRESENTATIVE FROM NEW

JERSEY; CHAIRMAN, CONGRESSIONAL-EXECUTIVE COMMISSION ON CHINA

CHINA’S FORCED REPATRIATION OF NORTH KOREAN REFUGEES VIOLATES

INTERNATIONAL LAW

MARCH 5, 2012

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. 
48 

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 

Article 33 of the Convention and Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees 

couldn’t be more clear: 

Prohibition of Explusion or Return (‘‘Refoulement’’): No Contracting State 

shall expel or return (‘‘refouler’’) a refugee in any manner whatsoever to the 

frontiers of territories where his life or freedom would be threatened on account 

of his race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion. 

Today’s hearing underscores an emergency that begs an immediate remedy. Lives 

are at risk. The North Korean refugees—disproportionately women—face death or 

severe sexual abuse and torture unless they get immediate protection. China has 

a duty to protect. 

In recent weeks we have had learned that Chinese authorities have reportedly detained dozens—perhaps more than 40—North Korean refugees. North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong-un, has threatened to ‘‘exterminate three generations’’ or any family 

with a member caught defecting from North Korea during the 100-day mourning period for the late Kim Jong-il. I believe him. 

It’s unclear whether or not the Obama Administration’s food aid to North Korea— 

some 240,000 metric tons per year—contains any conditions or links to the refugees. 

It should. 

Forced repatriation by China of North Koreans isn’t new. But that doesn’t make 

what is about to happen to dozens of new victims any less offensive. 

According to testimony submitted today by Roberta Cohen, Chair of the Committee for Human Right in North Korea and Non-Resident Senior Fellow at the 

Brookings Institution, ‘‘China has forcibly returned tens of thousands over the past 

two decades. Most if not all have been punished in North Korea and according to 

the testimonies and reports received by the Committee for Human Rights, the punishment has included beatings, torture, detention, forced labor, sexual violence, and 

in the case of women suspected of become pregnant in China, forced abortions or 

infanticide.’’ 

For the record, since 2005 alone, I have chaired four congressional human rights 

hearings that focused in whole or in part on the plight of North Korean refugees 

and China’s ongoing violations of international law. They include: 

• Human Rights in North Korea: Challenges and Opportunities (Sept. 20, 2011) 

http://foreignaffairs.house.gov/112/68443.pdf 

• North Korea: Human Rights Update and International Abduction Issues 

(April 27, 2006) 

http://democrats.foreignaffairs.house.gov/archives/109/27228.pdf 

• Lifting the Veil: Getting the Refugees Out, Getting Our Message In: An Update on the Implementation of the North Korean Human Rights Act (Oct. 27, 

2005) 

http://democrats.foreignaffairs.house.gov/archives/109/24202.pdf 

• The North Korean Human Rights Act of 2004: Issues and Implications (April 

28, 2005) 

http://democrats.foreignaffairs.house.gov/archives/109/20919.pdf 

The Chinese government claims that the North Korean refugees are ‘‘illegal economic migrants’’—not refugees. Furthermore, the Chinese government continues its 

policy of repatriating North Koreans in China according to a bilateral repatriation 

agreement that requires it return all border crossers. As we will hear today, in 

doing so, China is in clear violation of its obligations under the 1951 Convention 

Relating to the Status of Refugees and its 1967 Protocol, to which China has acceded. Under international law and standards, these detained refugees are entitled 

to protection if there is well-founded reason to believe that they will be persecuted 

upon return. As our witnesses will attest, we know what the detained refugees face. 

There are documented accounts, as well as strong evidence. We know that persecution exists. 

North Korea is certainly at fault. It must also be stated that China has contributed to the humanitarian crisis through its policy of gendercide—the killing of baby 

girls by forced abortion of infanticide. China’s one-child policy has led to the worst 

gender disparity in any nation in history, and that is directly connected to the issue 

we probe today. According to the 2011 CECC Annual Report, NGOs and researchers 

estimate that as many as 70 percent of the North Korean refugees in China are 

women. And some researchers have estimated that 9 out of every 10 North Korean 
49 

women in China are trafficked. There is a high demand for wives in northeastern 

China where severe sex ratio imbalances have fueled the trafficking of North Korean women for commercial sexual exploitation and forced marriage. 

Our focus today is China’s role and responsibility in solving this immediate problem. At this time, we call on China to uphold its international obligations and take 

immediate steps to end this cruel policy of sending North Koreans back to persecution or death. China must conform to international norms and allow these refugees 

safe passage to the Republic of Korea, or grant them immediate asylum. And, we 

ask that the Chinese government take all necessary steps to meet the requirements 

of the Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees and its Protocol. 

I welcome and thank all of our witnesses. It is an extraordinary honor to welcome 

Ms. Han Song-hwa and her daughter Jo Jin-hye, former North Korean refugees who 

are here to share their personal accounts of detention, hardship and loss. I am sure 

that their reflections and observations will deepen our understanding of this issue 

and strengthen our insistence that China immediately address this crisis. 
50 

SUBMISSION FOR THE RECORD

WRITTEN STATEMENT OF ROBERTA COHEN, CHAIR, COMMITTEE FOR HUMAN RIGHTS

IN NORTH KOREA, AND NON-RESIDENT SENIOR FELLOW, THE BROOKINGS INSTITU- TION, ON CHINA’S REPATRIATION OF NORTH KOREAN REFUGEES

MARCH 5, 2012

On behalf of the Committee for Human Rights in North Korea, I would like to 

express great appreciation to Congressman Christopher Smith and Senator Sherrod 

Brown for holding this hearing today to highlight the case of an estimated 30 to 

40 North Koreans who fled into China and now risk being forcibly returned to North 

Korea where they will most assuredly be severely punished. We consider it essential 

to defend the fundamental rights of North Koreans to leave their country and seek 

asylum abroad and to call upon China to stop its forcible repatriation of North Koreans and provide them with the needed human rights and humanitarian protection 

to which they are entitled. The right to leave a country, to seek asylum abroad and 

not to be forcibly returned to conditions of danger are internationally recognized 

rights which North Korea and China, like all other countries, are obliged to respect. 

This particular case of North Koreans has captured regional and international attention. South Korean President Lee Myung Bak has spoken out publicly against 

the return of the North Koreans and National Assembly woman Park Sun Young 

has undertaken a hunger strike in front of the Chinese Embassy in Seoul. The Parliamentary Forum for Democracy encompassing 18 countries has urged its members 

to raise the matter with their governments. 

The case, however, is situated at the tip of the iceberg. According to the State Department’s Human Rights Report (2010), there may be thousands or tens of thousands of North Koreans hiding in China. Although China does allow large numbers 

of North Koreans to reside illegally in its country, they have no rights and China 

has forcibly returned tens of thousands over the past two decades. Most if not all 

have been punished in North Korea and according to the testimonies and reports 

received by the Committee for Human Rights, the punishment has included beatings, torture, detention, forced labor, sexual violence, and in the case of women suspected of become pregnant in China, forced abortions or infanticide. 

Stringent punishment in particular has been meted out to North Koreans who 

have associated abroad with foreigners (i.e., missionaries, aid workers or journalists) 

or have sought political asylum or tried to obtain entry into South Korea. The North 

Koreans currently arrested and threatened with return are therefore likely to suffer 

severe punishment should they be repatriated. Some might even face execution; the 

North Korean Ministry of Public Security issued a decree in 2010 making the crime 

of defection a ‘‘crime of treachery against the nation.’’ 

The Committee for Human Rights in North Korea, a Washington DC-based nongovernmental organization, established in 2001, has published three in-depth reports on the precarious plight of North Koreans in China and the cruel and inhuman practice of forcibly sending them back to one of the world’s most oppressive 

regimes. The first, The North Korean Refugee Crisis: Human Rights and International Response (2006), edited by Stephan Haggard and Marcus Noland, establishes that most if not all North Koreans in China merit a prima facie claim to refugee or refugee sur place status. The second, Lives for Sale: Personal Accounts of 

Women Fleeing North Korea to China (2010) calls upon China to set up a screening 

process with the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to determine the 

status of North Koreans and ensure they are not forcibly returned. The third, to be 

published in April, Hidden Gulag second edition, by David Hawk, presents the 

harrowing testimony of scores of North Koreans severely punished after being returned to North Korea. 

REASONS NORTH KOREANS IN CHINA SHOULD BE CONSIDERED REFUGEES

Although China claims that North Koreans in its country are economic migrants 

subject to deportation, we submit that North Koreans in China should merit international refugee protection for the following reasons: 

First, a definite number of those who cross the border can be expected to do so 

out of a well founded fear of persecution on political, social or religious grounds. It 

is well known that in their own country North Koreans suffer persecution if they 

express or even appear to hold political views unacceptable to the authorities, listen 

to foreign broadcasts, watch South Korean DVDs, practice their own religious beliefs, or try to leave the country. Some 200,000 are incarcerated in labor camps and 
51 

1 Under the Convention, a person is a refugee if he or she is outside his/her country of origin 

because of ‘‘a well-founded fear of being persecuted’’ for ‘‘reasons of race, religion, nationality, 

membership of a particular social group or political opinion’’ and unable or unwilling to avail 

him or herself of the protection of that country. An exception is if the person has committed 

criminal acts (although in the case of North Korea, the term criminal would be open to discussion). 2See Committee for Human Rights in North Korea, Marked for Life: Songbun, North Korea’s 

Social Classification System, 2012 (forthcoming). 3 In September 2004, the High Commissioner announced before UNHCR’s Executive Committee that North Koreans in China are ‘persons of concern.’’ One reason why UNHCR used 

this term was that it had no access to the North Koreans; another was that under the Refugee 

Convention, persons of dual nationality could be excluded from refugee status. (However it has 

been pointed out that in the case of North Koreans, not all are able to avail themselves of their 

right to citizenship in South Korea, some may not choose to do so, and South Korea may not 

take in every North Korean. The United States and other countries do not consider North Koreans ineligible for refugee status because of the dual nationality provision.) 

other penal facilities on political grounds. Moreover, North Koreans imprisoned for 

having gone to China for food or employment often try, once released, to leave 

again. Some conclude they will always be under suspicion, surveillance and persecution in North Korea and therefore cross the border once again, this time seeking 

political refuge, ultimately in South Korea. 

Because China has no refugee adjudication process to determine who is a refugee 

and the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has no access to North Koreans at the border, it has not been possible to ascertain how many North Koreans 

are seeking asylum because of a well-founded fear of political or other persecution. 

But those who cross the border because of political, religious or social persecution 

will no doubt fit the definition of refugee under the 1951 Convention Relating to the 

Status of Refugees and its 1967 Protocol.1

Second, those who cross the border into China for reasons of economic deprivation, 

probably the majority, may also qualify as refugees if they have been compelled to 

leave North Korea because of government economic policies that could be shown to 

be tantamount to political persecution. These North Koreans are not part of the 

privileged political elite and therefore have insufficient access to food and material 

supplies. In times of economic hardship in particular, food is distributed by the government first to the army and Party based on political loyalty whereas many of the 

North Koreans crossing into China during periods of famine are from the ‘‘impure,’’ 

‘‘wavering’’ or ‘‘hostile’’ classes, which are the poor, deprived lower classes, designated as such under North Korea’s songbun caste system.2 Their quest for economic survival could therefore be based on political discrimination and persecution. 

Examining such cases in a refugee determination process might establish that certain numbers of North Koreans crossing into China for economic survival merit refugee status under the 1951 Convention. 

Third, and by far the most compelling argument why North Koreans should not 

be forcibly returned is that most if not all fit the category of refugees sur place. As 

defined by UNHCR, refugees sur place are persons who might not have been refugees when they left their country but who become refugees ‘‘at a later date’’ because 

they have a valid fear of persecution upon return. North Koreans who leave their 

country because of economic reasons have valid reasons for fearing persecution and 

punishment upon return. Their government after all deems it a criminal offense to 

leave the country without permission and punishes persons who are returned, or 

even who return voluntarily. North Koreans in China therefore could qualify as refugees sur place. 

The High Commissioner for Refugees, Antonio Guterres in 2006 while on a visit 

to China raised the concept of refugees sur place with Chinese officials. He told 

them that forcibly repatriating North Koreans without any determination process 

and where they could be persecuted on return stands in violation of the Refugee 

Convention. To UNHCR since 2004, North Koreans in China without permission are 

deemed ‘‘persons of concern,’’ meriting humanitarian protection.3 It has proposed to 

China a special humanitarian status for North Koreans, which would enable them 

to obtain temporary documentation, access to services, and protection from forced 

return. To date, China has failed to agree to this temporary protected status. 

While China has cooperated with UNHCR in making arrangements for Vietnamese and other refugees to integrate in China or resettle elsewhere, it has refused to cooperate when it comes to North Koreans. Only in cases where North Koreans have made their way to foreign embassies or consulates or the UNHCR compound in Beijing has China felt impelled to cooperate with governments or the 

UNHCR in facilitating their departure to South Korea or other countries. In the 

vast majority of cases, China considers itself bound to an agreement it made with 
52 

North Korea in 1986 (the ‘‘Mutual Cooperation Protocol for the Work of Maintaining 

National Security and Social Order and the Border Areas’’). This agreement obliges 

China and North Korea to prevent ‘‘illegal border crossings of residents.’’ Chinese 

police as a result collaborate with North Korean police in tracking down North Koreans and forcibly returning them to North Korea without any reference to their 

rights under refugee or human rights law or the obligations of China under the 

agreements it has ratified. Implementation of this agreement sounds remarkably 

like the efforts made by the former Soviet Union to support the German Democratic 

Republic’s actions to punish East Germans for trying to leave their country. It is 

an agreement that undermines and stands in violation of China’s obligations under 

the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees (which it signed in 1982), 

its membership in UNHCR’s Executive Committee (EXCOM), which seeks to promote refugee protection, and the human rights agreements to which China has chosen to adhere. So too do China’s domestic laws contradict its international refugee 

and human rights commitments. A local law in Jilin province (1993) requires the 

return of North Koreans who enter the province illegally. 

China is bound not only by the Refugee Convention that prohibits nonrefoulement but the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, which China ratified in 1988. It prohibits the return of persons to states ‘‘where there are substantial grounds for believing’’ that 

they would be ‘‘subjected to torture.’’ Indeed, the Committee against Torture (CAT), 

the expert body monitoring the convention’s implementation, has called upon China 

to establish a screening process to examine whether North Koreans will face the 

risk of torture on return, to provide UNHCR access to all North Korean persons of 

concern, and to adopt legislation incorporating China’s obligations under the convention, in particular with regard to deportations. 

Another UN expert body, the Committee on the Rights of the Child, which monitors compliance by China and other states with the Convention on the Rights of 

the Child, similarly has called on China to ensure that no unaccompanied child from 

North Korea is returned to a country ‘‘where there are substantial grounds for believing that there is a real risk of irreparable harm to the child.’’ 

China of course has legitimate interests in wanting to control its borders. It is 

concerned about potential large scale outflows from North Korea and the impact of 

such flows on North Korea’s stability. It also is said to be concerned about potential 

Korean nationalism in its border areas where there are historic Korean claims. But 

China should not become complicit in the serious human rights violations perpetrated by North Korea against its own citizens. The reports of the United Nations 

Secretary-General and of the Special Rapporteur on human rights in North Korea 

as well as the resolutions of the General Assembly, adopted by more than 100 

states, have strongly criticized North Korea for its practices and called upon North 

Korea’s ‘‘neighboring states’’ to cease the deportation of North Koreans because of 

the terrible mistreatment they are known to endure upon return. 

RECOMMENDATIONS

To encourage China to fulfill its international obligations in this matter, the following recommendations are offered: 

First, additional hearings should be held by the United States Congress on the 

plight of North Koreans who cross into China. A spotlight must be kept on the issue 

to seek to avert China’s forced repatriation of North Koreans to situations where 

their lives are at risk. 

Second, members of Congress should lend support to the efforts of the Parliamentary Forum for Democracy, established in 2010, so that joint inter-parliamentary efforts can be mobilized in a number of countries around the world on behalf of the 

North Koreans in danger in China. Such joint efforts can also offer solidarity to 

South Korean colleagues protesting the forced return of North Koreans. 

Third, the United States should encourage UNHCR to raise its profile on this 

issue. It further should lend its full support to UNHCR’s appeals and proposals to 

China and mobilize other governments to do likewise in order to make sure that 

the non-refoulement provision of the 1951 Refugee Convention is upheld and the 

work of this important UN agency enhanced. China’s practices at present threaten 

to undermine the principles of the international refugee protection regime. 

Fourth, together with other concerned governments, the United States should give 

priority to raising the forced repatriation of North Koreans with Chinese officials 

but in the absence of response, should bring the issue before international refugee 

and human rights fora. UNHCR’s Executive Committee as well as the UN Human 

Rights Council and General Assembly of the United Nations should all be expected 

to call on China by name to carry out its obligations under refugee and human 
53 

4See Roberta Cohen, ‘‘Admitting North Korean Refugees to the United States: Obstacles and 

Opportunities,’’ 38 North, September 20, 2011. 

rights law and enact legislation to codify these obligations so that North Koreans 

will not be expelled if their lives or freedom are in danger. Specifically, China 

should be called upon to adopt legislation incorporating its obligations under the 

Refugee Convention and international human rights agreements and to bring its existing laws into line with internationally agreed upon principles. It should be expected to call a moratorium on deportations of North Koreans until its laws and 

practices are brought into line with international standards and can ensure that 

North Koreans will not be returned to conditions of danger. 

Fifth, the United States should promote a multilateral approach to the problem 

of North Koreans leaving their country. Their exodus affects more than China. It 

concerns South Korea most notably, which already houses more than 23,000 North 

Korean ‘defectors’ and whose Constitution offers citizenship to North Koreans. 

Countries in East and Southeast Asia, East and West Europe as well as Mongolia 

and the United States are also affected as they too have admitted North Korean refugees and asylum seekers. Together with UNHCR, a multilateral approach should 

be designed that finds solutions for North Koreans based on principles of nonrefoulement and human rights and humanitarian protection. International burden 

sharing has been introduced for other refugee populations and should be developed 

here. 

Sixth, the United States should make known its readiness to increase the number 

of North Korean refugees and asylum seekers admitted to this country.4 Other countries should be encouraged as well to step forward and take in more North Korean 

refugees and asylum seekers until such time as they no longer face persecution and 

punishment in their country. 

Thank you. 

Æ