The Plight of North Koreans in China and Beyond

Seoul/Brussels  |   26 Oct 2006

The international community needs to do more to help thousands of desperate North Koreans who are fleeing their country or it may find the nuclear crisis with Pyongyang even more difficult to resolve.

Perilous Journeys: The Plight of North Koreans in China and Beyond,* the latest report from the International Crisis Group, examines the hidden, often shifting networks through which the border crossers seek better lives in China and third countries. The number is growing, and they are a source of tension between the two Koreas, but also between China and its neighbours and South Korea and the U.S.

China and South Korea have held back, even during the recent Security Council debate over post-test sanctions, from applying as much pressure as they might to persuade Pyongyang to reverse its dangerous nuclear policy, in part because they fear that the steady stream of North Koreans flowing into China and beyond would become a torrent if the North’s economy were to collapse under the weight of tough measures.

“Clearly, the primary responsibility for the mounting humanitarian tragedy lies with North Korea but the international community has failed to find an effective means of dealing with the situation”, says Peter Beck, Crisis Group’s North East Asia Project Director.

Scores of thousands of North Koreans are risking their lives trying to escape their country’s hardships in search of a better life. Meanwhile, due to natural and man-made disasters, the perfect storm may be brewing for a return to famine in the North. Though generally impervious to outside advice, Pyongyang should at least explore small steps of travel liberalisation. Some measures could be taken relatively easily without giving its leadership cause to fear for the survival of the regime.

Otherwise, China is the key to improving the situation. It should shift focus from keeping North Koreans out to protecting them once they have entered. Even if China does not allow North Koreans to seek asylum officially on its territory, it should stop forcible repatriation. At least until Beijing does so, neighbouring countries, who are all too eager to pass the buck, should not turn North Koreans crossing from China back to Chinese authorities, but instead contact either South Korea or the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

Having been most vocal about North Korean human rights, the U.S. and the EU member states should recognise and accept many more of these people for resettlement. South Korea should also play a more active (but understandably quiet) role to help North Korean border crossers trapped in China and beyond. But China is the key country.

“There needs to be a more sustained international engagement with Beijing on this issue”, says Robert Templer, Crisis Group’s Asia Program Director. “It should see how dealing with it better, and in cooperation with other countries, is really in its own interests”.