SKorean Protest

"LandepNews"

SKorean Protest

South Korea and the United States on Thursday protested against China’s decision to repatriate 31 North Korean citizens who were caught on Chinese soil this month. The president of the South Korea, Lee Myung-bak, demanded Beijing to let the NKoreans go to SKorea in stead of being transferred to their country, where they would probably have to endure severe punishments and maybe execution.
In a speech broadcasted on national television, marking his fourth anniversary as president, Lee said that if the defectors have committed no crimes in China, the government in Beijing should treat them under the international law, and therefore should let them go to SKorea.
Earlier in the week, SKorea alluded that it may bring the matter of the NKorean defectors up at the UN Human Rights Council conference, which is to be held in Geneva next week.
Beijing should abide, Seoul urges, by the 1951 and 1987 treaties which ban the transfer of the refugees to countries where they may be at risk. China, which signed a treaty with NKorea to repatriate all defectors, says that they came across the border for economic reasons and do not qualify for political asylum or protection under international refugee regulations.
China has returned many defectors from NKorea over the years, and only few succeeded in passing from China to another Asian country, on their way to SKorea. It is said that all those who are returned fall into the hands of the NKorean security.
The situation became worse as the new leader of NKorea, Kim Jong-eun, has promised that three generations of defectors’ families will be arrested, tortured or killed. 100 people protested in the center of Seoul on Thursday against the deportation from China to NKorea.

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