Police in Heilongjiang Province’s city of Mudanjiang are planning to implement legal procedures aimed at protecting the rights of North Korean defectors arrested trying to reach South Korea, Daily NK has learned.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, a Daily NK source in China said that police in Mudanjiang “decided on Apr. 20 to adopt proposals to improve legal procedures to protect the rights of North Korean defectors arrested for violating laws in China and implement them on a trial basis.”
According to the source, the move follows the tragic death of a 26-year-old North Korean defector who was arrested at her home in January after an acquaintance told police she was trying to escape to South Korea. Fearing she would be repatriated to the North, the young woman swallowed poison in front of her children and ultimately died.
The police put forth the proposed improvements to strengthen the legitimacy of legal procedures dealing with North Korean defectors amid the international community’s continued criticism of China’s repatriation of people who fled the North last October.
“They said they would grant arrested defectors the right to meet with a legal representative or lawyer, improve the transparency of investigations and trials by involving several people in the entire process and move cases along as swiftly as possible when the investigation is complete,” the source said. “Mudanjiang police believe that doing so will better protect the rights of North Korean defectors.”
Mudanjiang police quietly told subordinate organizations that they could use the trial implementation of the proposed improvements to respond to international criticism of China’s legal handling of North Korean defectors, including the repatriation of defectors without the slightest respect for their rights.
However, the source said that the proposed improvements represent, in theory, a significant advancement, but “we’ll have to wait and see how effective they are in practice, or whether they will really protect the rights of defectors during the legal process.
“One Chinese man whose wife, a North Korean defector, was repatriated to the North said Chinese police must understand why that woman killed herself and how frightening forced repatriations are to defectors, and that the implementation of the improvements would be an important opportunity for defectors living in fear of repatriations.
“The proposed improvements to legal procedures in dealing with defectors are being implemented on a trial basis in Mudanjiang. I don’t know whether they will be expanded to other regions in China,” the source added.
Translated by David Black. Edited by Robert Lauler.
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