In the afternoon: Behind the Chinese Repatriation of the North

According to Korean media reports, China will be sent back to North Korea through multiple border ports this week, and about 600 northern people who have been detained in Jilin and Liaoning.

Yonhap News Agency on Wednesday (October 11) quoted the "North Korean Justice Company" in South Korea's private groups, and reported the above news.The South Korean Unification spokesman, responsible for the North -South Relations of the Korean Peninsula, also said on Friday (October 13) that many Korean residents who were repatriated in China were "seemingly true", but did not disclose the specific number.

Ge Bingshan said that the South Korean government was deeply regretful about the current situation, and had conveyed the position of the South Korean side to China, that is, under any circumstances, they should not be sent back to North Korea from the north.

Although South Korea and European and American society have been criticized for a long time, it is not a strange thing in the repatriation of the north to repatriation of the north. However, after experiencing the three -year border blockade of the epidemic, the meaning behind such a large -scale repatriation is still attracting public opinion., Especially public opinion from South Korea.

Who is the northern person?

North North is from South Korea, referring to all North Korean citizens who leave North Korea through non -normal channels and reach other countries.

Park Jianyi, a researcher of the Asia -Pacific and Global Institute of Strategic Research of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, and Li Zhifei published in 2012, pointed out that after the northern parties originated from the disintegration of the Soviet Union, North Korea's international economic environment worsen rapidly, plus the mid -1990sWith severe natural disasters, North Korea's economy was drastic, and many North Korean people went to China to vote for relatives and friends, and then spawned more people to go to China to take refuge through illegal cross -border.

The paper refers to the Chinese border people with humanitarianism to provide these Korean people with relief food and daily necessities, but this has also led to more Koreans illegally enter China and spread to three northeast provinces and other places to make a living.Entering the 21st century, some of the people in China began to attack the foreign embassies and consulates in China or to use international media public opinion to get the opportunity to enter third countries such as South Korea and Japan.

In the background of the sovereignty dispute between the Korean Peninsula, the South Korean government has always preferentially treated the north to give them refugee status and subsidies.According to the data released by the Ministry of Unification of South Korea, as of June this year, 33,981 people from the North entered South Korea, of which about 72%were women.

In the international community, there is a different point of view for whether the northern people are refugees: for example, in 2004, the United States passed the North Korean Human Rights Act in 2004 to allow the north to apply for refugee status; Canada believes thatWith Korean nationality, it is not possible to apply for refugee status.

In addition, there are some countries that have not signed the United Nations Convention on Refugees and cannot determine that those from the North as a refugee must be repatriated, such as Thailand.Although China signed the convention, it did not agree that those who left North Korea were refugees.

This is why Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Wang Wenbin said on Thursday (October 12) in response to the repatriation of the Northern Event, "there is no such thing as a" northern person "in China."

China has no North North?

According to foreign media reports such as the Russian satellite news agency, Wang Wenbin said that for the "illegal entry of North Koreans who came to China for economic reasons", China has always adhered to a responsible attitude and adhered to in accordance with the principles of domestic law, international law and humanitarianism.Properly handle.

shows that Chinese officials do not deny the existence of the crowd of the North North, but they do not agree with the refugee identity given to the names of these people.

According to the "prohibition principle" in the convention of refugee status, no contracting country shall expel or return the refugee or return to its mother country or any country that will be threatened.This is also the basis for South Korea and the United States and other countries to condemn China for the treatment of northern people.

This means that if China acknowledges the identity of the northern and its refugee, it will no longer have a choice to replace them back to North Korea.For China, the initiative to keep on this issue is very important.

First of all, once a refugee identity is acknowledged, if North Korea has a coup or serious natural disaster, a large number of North Koreans who enter China as a refugee will threaten China's own social security and stability and bring a small economy.pressure.

In the second, in the face of "illegal entry", China can deal with the different choices that include repatriation, intercourse and third countries, or allow them to stay in the country according to the relationship with the relationship between the two countries at that time.Essence

In short, if the relationship between China and North Korea and South Korea is regarded as a balance, then the relationship between China and the relationship with is more harmonious and stable, and it will tend to hand in the country.In the same way, the outside world can also take a glimpse of the international relations at the time from the handling of the northern people.

China ’s northerner Illustrated Book

Although China was quite friendly to the escape from North Korea in the early days and provided many humanitarian relief, as the northern people were getting more and more and caused more social and public security issues, China's official attitude also occurred.Change, began to be arrested and detained these "illegal entryrs" and sent them back to North Korea.Of course, due to the sensitivity of things, most of the repatriation activities have no official certification.

Park Jianyi and Li Zhifei's papers believe that in the early 21st century, South Korean non -governmental organizations began to intervene in the issue of China and North Korea, which evolved into foreign affairs involving China, North Korea, and South Korea.They believe that these organizations use the South Korean government to receive and resettle the policies of North Koreans and the international attention to refugee issues. Through the manufacture of diplomatic incidents, the path to North Korea is diversified, and the problem of the northern issue will eventually evolve in the end.Become an international event.

The so -called diplomatic incident usually refers to the breakthroughs in the embassy and consulate in China or international institutions to seek refugee asylum.One of the cases was May 8, 2002. At that time, Kim Hanmei, who was only two years old, broke into the Japanese consulate in Shenyang.At that time, the photos of them broke into the embassy were photographed by foreign journalists and quickly spread the world, becoming a news that sensation in the world.

The reason why Jin Hanmei is particularly special is that except for herThe prototype of the "Statue of the Northern Girl" met by Bush, the then President Bush, was interviewed by the Chinese media "Tencent Vision" in South Korea because of the end of 2011 at the end of 2011.This 10 -year -old report published in January 2012 is the first time that the mainstream media in China has focused on the northern group.

At that time, China -DPRK relations appeared variables due to Kim Jong -un's succession. Later, it was cold because North Korea did not informed China in advance that it was not informed of China.In April 2012, the Japanese media reported that the Chinese government had stopped repatriation of the North Beibei because of dissatisfaction with the launch of satellites in North Korea.However, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not confirm this statement at that time.

According to British BBC and other media reports, in 2014, after the Chinese border armed police arrested 11 people from the border between China and Laos, they did not repatriate them back to North Korea. Instead, they released them all.Korean government.Although the Chinese government did not confirm the matter, this move was regarded as a sign of its adjustment to the North North policy.

In 2016, 13 North Korean people who were in a Korean restaurant in China collectively went to South Korea. At that time, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that these people held effective identity documents and legally enter and exit China.

However, as China -DPRK relations eased after Kim Jong -un's visit to China in March 2018, such news did not appear again.

The situation and the way out of the north

Human Rights Organization believes that if the northern people are forcibly repatriated to North Korea, they are likely to be sent to political criminals, suffering, torture, atrocities, and non -human treatment.However, even if they are not repatriated to North Korea, most of the lives of northern people in the third country are not fairy tales.

Although there are Jihyun Park (transliteration) and Timothy Cho (transliteration), the northern people are running for local members in the UK, and there are also northern people Zhao Mingzhe and Taimin (formerly known as Tai Yonghao)He was successfully elected as a member of the South Korean Parliament, but most of the northern people still lived at the bottom of the society. They were treated and discriminated against each other, and they could not integrate into the local life.

How many such people are there in China, the outside world is unknown.Because they did not have a legal identity, they hid between the countryside and evaded the official tracking.Many international independent agencies estimate that about 30 to 400,000 North Koreans who illegally stayed in China during the peak period.

It can be clear that since the outbreak of the crown disease in 2020, the border between North Korea has been closed, which has reduced the number of people from the north.Data from the Ministry of Unified South Korea showed that from 2020 to June this year, a total of 458 people from North entered South Korea, less than half of the 1047 people in 2019.

During this period, except for foreign media in July 2021, there were no more related news that China had repatriated 50 people who repatriated to the North.Some human rights organization estimates that there are still about 2,000 detained north in China.

Robert R. King, former North Korean human rights envoy, wrote to the Washington Strategy and International Issues Research Center (CSIS) in June this year that the stopping of repatriation may be because North Korea refused to accept North North during the epidemic situation.Those who return to China, not not in China.

This shows that the number of people repatriated in China this time is so large, reflecting the problem of the backlog of the backlog of the backlog of China and North Korea, and also represents the recurrence of the border activities of both parties after the epidemic.

On the other hand, China chooses to repatriate these northern northern people, which also means that compared with Sino -South Korean relations, China -DPRK relations are more stable and normal.If this trend continues, China will continue to repatriate more northern people next.