SEOUL, March 6 (UPI) -- North Korea has escalated its crackdown on people caught trying to flee the country, a human right report released in Seoul said Tuesday.
The North has adopted since late 2004 a new policy of punishing border-crossers with up to five years in prison, where they then face forced labor and starvation, Human Rights Watch said in the report.
"In an ominous hardening of policy, North Korea appears to be punishing its citizens with longer sentences in abusive prisons if they are caught crossing the border to China or have been forcibly repatriated by Beijing." the report said.
"North Koreans are crossing into China to avoid starvation since their government is either unwilling or unable to feed them," it said. "Not only does the North Korean government fail to feed its population, but it also persecutes its citizens for simply trying to survive."
South Korean activists say some 100,000 North Koreans are hiding in China for a chance to defect to South Korea after fleeing hunger and suppression in their communist homeland.
