Dispute Between Korea and China over Asylum Seekers

24 North Korean defectors, who have been stayed in the Korean consulate in Peking will arrive in Korea today via a third nation. The news is very fortunate for the North Korean defectors themselves. In addition we hope there will be no such inhumanitarian incidents as sending North Koreans in China back to their Stalinist country as China announced in a joint statement that the country would deal with the issue in a humanitarian manner and in accordance with the international and domestic laws.

With this measure, Korea and China have finally found a middle ground in dealing with the incident, in which Chinese policemen punched and kicked South Korean diplomats who sought to prevent the removal of a North Korean, surnamed Won. It appears that both countries have recognized that their relations should not be marred by such incidents involving North Korean asylum seekers.

But the compromise Korea and China reached this time is only a stopgap measure and the fundamental problem remains unsolved.

First, China only expressed its regret for the violence of the Chinese police against Korean diplomats. And the Chinese ambassador came under fire when he distributed China`s unilateral argument to the Korean media. For such misdeeds, China should have made a formal apology.

Also the Korean government should not just brush over the important violation case against the Korean diplomatic sovereignty. With this makeshift measure, the relations between Korea and China will not be able to see a true development.

The bigger problem is that both countries have failed to answer a fundamental question of how North Korean asylum seekers should be handled in the future. Such incidents are sure to arise again since North Koreans in China will continue to seek asylum in the Korean embassies in foreign countries. Both countries cannot just cope with such incidents through negotiations case by case. China is urged once again to go beyond its pessimistic approach and to work out a fundamental solution to this issue involving North Korea defectors, which has already drawn attention from the international society.