At least 600 North Koreans vanish after being deported from China
Luke Gentile
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At least 600 North Korean nationals vanished after they were deported from China to the lonely authoritarian nation.
The group was repatriated from communist China to North Korea in October, where they have purportedly been subject to imprisonment and abuse, Seoul’s Transitional Justice Working Group said, according to a Thursday report.
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Nearly 70% of those who have vanished are believed to be women.
Due to their status as branded criminals, the women and remaining members of the group will likely be subjected to torture, gender-based violence, imprisonment, forced abortions, sexual assault, and execution, the group said.
“Unlike North Korea, China does actually care about its international reputation, and we believe that more forceful criticism and more forceful action from the U.S. side might make Beijing rethink its policy,” Ethan Hee-Seok Shin, a legal analyst for the group, said.
Both China and North Korea have failed to recognize the mass deportation.
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The roughly 600 citizens were likely in China as defectors, attempting to reach South Korea, but Chinese policy recognizes them as “economic migrants” inside China illegally, the report noted.
“Not only are they sending these helpless North Koreans back home, but they’re also leaving these husbands without wives, children without their mothers,” Shin said. “So the end result of all this is basically just destroying these families.”