Those who had contact with religion in China face life in prison upon return to North Korea.
by Nang Ji-Na
We are all used to dealing with refugees “from” China. However, as strange as it may seem, there are also refugees who go “to” China. What kind of refugees would flee to China believing Xi JinpingIs ‘s country freer than theirs? The answer is: the North Koreans.
China is one of the worst countries in the world for human rights. North Korea is “the” worst. You have a better chance of being arrested, tortured and executed in North Korea than in any other country in the world. for various reasons, and even without any reason. If they could, the North Koreans would flee elsewhere, but the geography is such that, from parts of their unfortunate country, the only place they can go with any chance of successfully crossing the border is China, even if some die trying.
However, North Korean refugees are not safe in China. Young women can take advantage of China’s shortage of brides, a relic of the one-child policy when families aborted girls and kept boys, and married a Chinese man. However, there are many horrific stories about North Korean “slave wives” who never learn to speak Chinese and are abused and terrorized by their husbands. Other North Korean girls end up in the hands of Chinese organized crime and are trafficked as prostitutes.
However, this is not the worst possibility for North Korean refugees. The worst fate awaits those whom China decides to send back to North Korea. Xi JinpingThe diet does this regularly, although somewhat capriciously. On October 25, 2023, a brave North Korean woman who was once repatriated from China and finally managed to escape, gave a lecture in London. Her name is Kim Eunsun and she published her memoir “A Thousand Miles to Freedom” in 2012, translated into several languages.
Kim reported that China just deported 600 refugees to North Korea and could soon deport another 1,000. Kim said life for refugees in China was precarious. They are expected not to “make trouble,” otherwise they are expelled immediately. She gave the example of young girls being raped. If they go to the Chinese police, instead of being helped, they are deported. However, they prefer to stay in China rather than be repatriated to North Korea. They know they will be imprisoned there, tortured and possibly killed.
Since pregnancies must be allowed in North Korea, if they are deported to China, “pregnant women are subjected to unspeakable abuse, beatings and, in some cases, forced abortions,” Kim added. .
The Chinese authorities treat those they have decided to repatriate as criminals. “Forced repatriation is also accompanied by human rights violations in China,” Kim said. “In Chinese border security centers, (people awaiting deportation are) forced to defecate in plastic buckets in cells equipped with 24-hour surveillance cameras and sometimes have to listen to screams while people are beaten and electrocuted with electric batons. THE human rights the violations that occur during and after forced repatriation are merciless and dehumanizing.
Kim added that the North Korean regime had spies in China. Refugees who come into contact with religion there, that is to say mainly Christian churches, risk life in prison if they are repatriated. It doesn’t matter if the church they contacted is part of the group. PCC-control Three-Self Church. “Those who have been involved in churches in China are subject to harsh interrogation. I have never seen anyone who faced these interrogations be released from detention. Just meeting a Christian in China makes someone a political criminal,” Kim said.
