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SEOUL, Aug. 16 (UPI) -- South Korean Unification Minister Kim Yung-ho and other officials urged Beijing on Wednesday not to repatriate thousands of North Korean escapees after borders are reopened, citing concerns that they will face imprisonment and torture. "North Korean defectors in China should be defined as refugees who have the right to protect their lives and human rights," Kim said at a press conference held in Seoul to highlight the issue.
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There are an estimated 2,000 North Koreans currently being detained in China, according to U.N. Special Rapporteur on North Korean Human Rights Elizabeth Salmon.
Seoul is calling on China to protect the escapees as asylum seekers before North Korea lifts COVID-19 border closures that have been in place since January 2020.
Beijing, however, has long treated North Koreans crossing the border as illegal migrants and has not given them refugee protection. Kim and other advocates are asking China to uphold the international treaties it has signed, such as the U.N. Convention Against Torture, which bans repatriation to countries where there is a risk of torture.
"North Korean defectors should be guaranteed their human rights according to international standards and be able to enter the country they want, such as South Korea," Kim said.
"The government will accept all North Korean defectors who wish to come to South Korea," he added.
The remarks came as reports emerged Wednesday that two buses were detected crossing the North Korean border city of Sinuiju into China, an indication that COVID-19 restrictions may soon be lifted.
The buses appeared to be transporting 60 to 70 North Korean taekwondo athletes on their way to a competition, news agency Yonhap reported, which would mark the first large-scale civilian passage since Pyongyang closed its borders in January 2020.
A total of 8,148 cases of repatriation to North Korea have been documented by Seoul-based rights group Database Center for North Korean Human Rights, or NKDB, which co-hosted the press event.
Of these cases, 98% were sent back from China, NKDB researcher Su Bobae said.
Defectors are specifically targeted for torture when they are returned to North Korea, Su said, with those who engaged in religious activities or had contact with South Koreans singled out for harsher punishments including execution.
"After a four-year hiatus since the COVID-19 pandemic, it is evident that North Korean authorities will apply even more severe punishments to escapees," she said.
Rep. Choe Jae-hyeong, who moderated the press conference, called the end of COVID-19 restrictions "terrible news, like a prelude to death for North Korean escapees detained in China."
Beijing, which is a permanent member of the U.N. Security Council and a member of the U.N. Human Rights Council, has a "heavy responsibility" to take a leading role in improving international human rights, Choe said.
"Only when the Chinese government stops forcibly repatriating North Korean escapees and starts protecting [their] human rights ... can it be said that efforts for that responsibility can be realized," he said.
U.S Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield announced plans last week to hold an open briefing on North Korean human rights at the U.N. Security Council on Thursday.
The meeting, the first of its kind since 2017, will include briefings from U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk and North Korea rights envoy Elizabeth Salmon.
North Korea on Tuesday condemned the meeting as a "grave challenge to the dignity and sovereignty of the DPRK," using the official acronym for North Korea.
In a statement carried in state-run media, Vice Foreign Minister Kim Son Gyong said Pyongyang "resolutely denounces and rejects the despicable 'human rights' racket of the U.S."
China is also expected to oppose the meeting.
Beijing and Moscow have repeatedly shut down U.S.-led efforts for new Security Council measures against North Korea over its ballistic missile tests over the past year, as the two have tightened relations with Pyongyang.
Lee Shin-wha, Seoul's envoy for North Korean human rights, said that the Security Council meeting would more likely prioritize discussions of South Korean and Japanese abductees in North Korea.
"I do not know whether the North Korean refugee issue will be directly dealt with by member states," she told UPI at the press conference. "But when they are talking about the [South Korean and Japanese] detainees, forced repatriation can be indirectly discussed -- I think that will be a way to help the member states talk about this important issue."
