Police in Liaoning Province recently summoned North Korean women living with Chinese men to discuss their status in the country. The move suggests that Chinese police are aware of the current atmosphere of unease in the defector community following the recent mass repatriations.
According to a source on Dec. 6, members of the Ministry of Public Security visited a village in Liaoning Province in late November and summoned North Korean women known to be living with Chinese husbands to the local police precinct. The police told the assembled women that “defector management will be managed by provincial law enforcement going forward” and emphasized that the women “must not leave their area of residence without first informing law enforcement.”
“While there have been instances in the past of North Korean women being called in for a meeting at the local village precinct, this was the first time that a meeting had been directly carried out by police from the provincial branch of the Ministry of Public Security,” the source explained.
Notably, law enforcement officials at the meeting explicitly mentioned the mass repatriation of defectors that happened in late October.
One police officer told the assembled women that “while the fact that we sent a number of North Koreans back to their home country last month should be a warning to those of you who remain here, please rest assured that so long as you don’t cause any problems and continue to live quietly as you are now, you will not be forcibly sent back.”
Many North Koreans illegally residing in China have been on edge following the recent forcible repatriation of hundreds of North Korean defectors detained in Chinese prisons. Chinese police appear to have held the meeting to assuage these fears and once again warn the women that they must not leave their areas of residence without first receiving permission from the authorities.
The police also announced they would be collecting the women’s personal information, including blood type and fingerprints. This sort of identifying information is likely to be used to further control these women in the future.
After returning the women to their houses, the police then separately called their Chinese husbands into the precinct to gather and record the men’s overall evaluation of their defector wives, as well as information about the women’s recent movements and inclinations.
The source added that the Chinese husbands were also informed that incidents related to defectors, if sufficiently severe, may be handed over to China’s Ministry of State Security in accordance with China’s newly revised anti-espionage law, which took effect on July 1 this year.
Police explained that if defectors left their areas of residence, engaged in crime, or caused any other serious problems, the matter would be handled by anti-espionage authorities and that law enforcement would decide whether the woman would be forcibly repatriated or not. However, in less severe cases, police assured the men that the Chinese families could intercede to vouch for the women and avoid repatriation.
Despite the meeting’s intentions, the source concluded that the gathering only stoked unease. “While the police tried to allay the women’s concerns by telling them that everything would be fine and they wouldn’t be sent back to North Korea so long as they didn’t commit any crimes, the police ultimately only caused more worries by bringing up the anti-espionage law to their husbands.”
Translated by Rose Adams. Edited by Robert Lauler.
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