24 defectors who were arrested jointly by the Chinese Ministry of Public Security and North Korea’s National Security Agency earlier this month are currently being detained at a detention center on the Chinese side of the Tumen River at Tumen. North Korea’s National Security Agency has repeatedly requested their repatriation, but with public opinion in strong opposition the Chinese authorities are apparently unwilling to move.
A well informed source inside the Chinese security forces told the Daily NK today, “A total of 24 defectors, 19 arrested in Shenyang and another five from Changchun and elsewhere, are currently imprisoned at the Tumen camp.”
The source said that persons arrested in Shenyang are usually taken to Dandong; however because this was a joint operation undertaken with the NSA they were moved to Tumen.
“As protests mount from the international community and the South Korean government, the cadres from Chinese public security are hesitating as to what to do. The investigation is over, but repatriation is stalled for now,” the source added. “The North Korean NSA is pressuring the Chinese to send the detainees back, but they seem to be worried.”
The Chinese government appears fearful of dealing with the defectors now, while the chorus of opposition to their repatriation in the international media grows louder. However, Beijing still defines all North Korean defectors as illegal economic migrants, and will probably repatriate them when the situation settles down.
One North Korean currently in China to meet family has told Daily NK that the 24 are in particular danger if they are repatriated, saying, “The ones caught this time all said that they were going to go to South Chosun, so if they are returned to the North they will undoubtedly be executed for being ‘traitors who sullied the reputation of the fatherland.’”
It is a claim lent weight by the fact that the regime of Kim Jong Eun has been reacting very sensitively to defector issues since its inception, making it certain to take unkindly to this case getting into the international media.
Sources also say that of 19 defectors caught by the Chinese security forces in September last year, 16 were sent to political prison camps after interrogation by the provincial National Security Agency.
One source explained, “Of the 19, those from South Hamkyung Province have already been sent to a political prison camp. The others, a family of three from Yangkang Province, paid a big bribe to the provincial NSA and got released.”
According to the source, a ton of gasoline was paid by remaining family of the three, a grandmother, a woman in her 40s and a disabled child of ten, to turn their crime into simple illegal border crossing.
