US Congress to hold hearing on deportation of NK escapees

The U.S. Congress will hold an emergency hearing on China’s repatriation of North Korean defectors March 5.

Christopher Smith, chairman of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China, said Monday, “After taking power, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has stepped up the crackdown on defectors by ordering the extermination of three generations of any family whose member is caught escaping North Korea,” adding, “China is aware that repatriated North Korean escapees face execution in the North. Despite this, China is forcibly repatriating them for the sake of their bilateral relationship.”

“Forcible repatriation of North Korean refugees is an indisputable violation of international law,” Smith said, adding, “We will have in-depth discussion on China’s inhumane acts and legality of forced repatriation.”

Prior to the hearing, the commission will also issue a statement blasting China`s deportation of defectors. At the hearing, Han Song-hwa and her daughter Jo Jin-hye, former North Korean defectors who were detained in China and sent back to North Korea, will explain the predicament of escapees by telling how harshly they were tortured and abused in the North.

Roberta Cohen, co-chair of the Committee for Human Rights in North Korea, and Suzanne Scholte, president of the human rights group Defense Forum Foundation, will also join the hearing as witnesses.

Given that the hearing is organized by a congressional committee exclusively in charge of China, the focus will be placed on criticizing China. Hearings on North Korea-related issues held by congressional foreign relations committees have mainly dealt with the human rights situation in North Korea. Congress held a hearing on North Korean defectors in 2009 to mark North Korean Human Rights Week, but this is the first time that it organized an emergency on the forced repatriation of North Koreans.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will likely express the U.S. stance on China’s deportation of defectors at the House of Representatives Committee on Foreign Affairs on Wednesday. According to Scholte, Clinton is highly likely to clarify Washington’s position on the matter given that the U.S. government has stepped up to arbitrate China’s forced repatriation of North Koreans.

mickey@donga.com