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(2004/C 84 E/0885)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-0414/04

by Charles Tannock (PPE-DE) to the Commission

(17 February 2004)

Subject:   The treatment of North Korean refugees in the People's Republic of China

A group of 12 North Korean refugees have recently been arrested by the Chinese authorities in Beijing and Quindao, (a port on the east coast, south east of Beijing). If they are sent back to North Korea they face prosecution, torture, imprisonment and even execution for daring to question their leader Kim Jung II.

These refugees are often helped by Chinese Christians who risk their own freedom trying to help them to safety.

Mindful of the fact that China has signed the 1951 United Nations Convention relating to the status of refugees, and is therefore bound by the principle of not returning people to a country where they face serious persecution, which has been made explicit by the horrific allegations in the UK press of the systematic use of gas chambers to execute men, women and children, will the Commission condemn North Korea's blatant flouting of its international obligations and argue that such behaviour will not be tolerated?

Answer given by Mr Patten on behalf of the Commission

(18 March 2004)

North Korea is currently a major concern for the international community including the European Union. The Commission has various channels through which it can meet representatives of the North Korean Government and put forward its concerns. Human rights issues, including the situation of North Korean refugees on the border with China, are systematically raised during these regular political contacts, on the last occasion during a round of formal discussions held in December 2003 in Pyongyang. The Commission has consistently expressed to the North Korean authorities its concern about the treatment of these people once returned by China to the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea (DPRK). It has urged the DPRK to respect the fundamental rights of these citizens.

Furthermore, the EU tabled a resolution on the human rights situation in the DPRK at the 2003 United Nations (UN) Commission of Human Rights which was adopted on 16 April 2003. The EU is prepared to table another resolution in 2004 underlining its continuing concern.

The EU is conducting a bilateral dialogue on human rights with China and the issue of the North Korean refugees in China has also been systematically raised in that context. The EU's constant position has been to call on the Chinese authorities to handle the issue in a moderate and constructive manner and to apply, therefore, the non-repatriation principle in accordance with the 1951 Geneva Convention on Refugees and to allow the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees to have access to the North Korea-China border area. Most recently, the EU recalled this position to the Chinese authorities during the last round of the dialogue on human rights held in Dublin on 26/27 February 2004. Moreover, on 18 February 2004, the EU Troika carried out a démarche to the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs concerning the arrest and detention in China of the DPRK citizens who had left their country and urged China not to forcibly repatriate them to the DPRK.

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