UN human rights body raises global awareness of defectors

The 19th session of the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva raised global attention Monday to the plight of North Korean defectors in China.

After a briefing on North Koreans human rights situation at the council, a Korean delegation of legislators held a meeting with U.N. Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in North Korea Marzuki Darusman.

“North Korean defectors are economic migrants and also refugees but exiles in the end. I’ll visit China within this year and will deliver our official message that the repatriation of North Korean defectors is in violation of international law and ask for help,” he said.

A delegation source said, “It`s very meaningful progress that Darusman defined North Korean defectors as exiles and asked Beijing not to send them back to North Korea.”

Darusman also made a significant shift in how to view the problem. He used to consider China a variable in dealing with defectors when it is inherently an inter-Korean matter.

U.S. special envoy on North Korea’s human rights Robert King, who stresses the importance of “quiet diplomacy”, told the delegation that he will actively cooperate with the international effort. “North Korean defectors managed to head to South Korea only through quiet diplomacy with China,” he said, to which a delegation member responded, “Under quiet diplomacy, Beijing caught more North Korean defectors and prevented them from leaving China more than before.”

King said in a serious tone, “Let’s find a fundamental solution to the issue by creating a scheme for cooperation among Seoul, Washington and Beijing.”

South Korean Ambassador to Switzerland Park Sang-ki said, “This is the first time that the European Union, the U.S., France, the U.K, Switzerland and Canada mentioned North Korean defectors and urged a ban on their repatriation at the U.N. Human Rights Council,” adding, “The international community has a different perspective on the issue now.”

More attention was paid to the defectors` plight in the Geneva Summit for Human Rights and Democracy on Tuesday than the past. In the second session on “Defying Totalitarian Regimes,” former defectors Kim Joo-il, who serves as secretary-general of a civic group helping defectors in Europe, and Kim Song-ju spoke on recent human rights violations on defectors in North Korea and China under the title of “New Ruler, Same Repression?”

taylor55@donga.com