Reference Made to North Korean Defectors in China Human Rights Resolution

It has become known that North Korean defector issue was mentioned in a draft of the human rights resolution against China that the U.S. is taking the initiative at the 60th United Nations Human Rights Committee under way in Geneva, Switzerland.

According to Seoul’s diplomatic information source on Sunday, the draft, which will be put to a vote at the end of this month, discusses issues such as the repatriation of North Korean defectors back to North Korea and the Chinese government’s treatment of them.

The information source said, “After the real status of the defector refugee house in Tumen was reported to South Korean press, the Chinese diplomatic ministry insisted that the article was exaggerated and their denial of the refugees’ fasting and protesting demonstrations seemed that they bore in mind about the U.S.’s intention to hand in the human rights resolution.”

For the last 14 years from 1990 to last year, the U.S. introduced human rights resolutions against China ten times to the United Nations Human Rights Committee. However, all of them were rejected every time because some members, being concerned with their diplomatic relationships with China, were either absent or abstained from votes.

Seung-Ryun Kim srkim@donga.com