North Korean defectors who were recently repatriated from China are being detained at Ministry of State Security holding centers near the China-North Korea border, Daily NK has learned.
Defectors who have experienced forced repatriation in the past say they were subjected to serious human rights abuses in the holding centers, including torture, beatings and sexual assault. There is thus concern that the recently repatriated defectors may face similar treatment at the hands of security officials.
Defectors being held at facilities in Sinuiju and Onsong
Through multiple sources in North Pyongan Province, North Hamgyong Province and elsewhere in North Korea, Daily NK confirmed that the defectors repatriated on Oct. 9 are being temporarily held at Ministry of State Security holding centers in Sinuiju and Onsong.
According to the sources, China repatriated about 200 people through Dandong and Tumen, turning them over to North Korea’s Ministry of State Security, which then transferred them to the ministry’s holding centers in Sinuiju and Onsong.
A source in China told Daily NK that between 200 and 300 North Korean people were sent back to North Korea at around 8 PM on Oct. 9.
“About 80% of them were women, and they were bused to Dandong Customs House, all of them in handcuffs,” the China-based source said, speaking on condition of anonymity for security reasons. “These were people who had been in Chinese prisons after Chinese police caught them for serious crimes like burglary or murder after illegally crossing into the country or trying to reach South Korea.”
The Ministry of State Security is investigating the repatriated defectors at the holding centers in Sinuiju and Onsong to determine the accounts and timing of their defections and what they did in China.
When the initial investigations at the holding centers are complete, the authorities will bring the defectors to facilities under the jurisdiction of law enforcement agencies in their original places of residence. There, the defectors will undergo preliminary examinations before having their punishments decided.
In North Korea, preliminary examinations include the entire interrogation process prior to suspected criminals being indicted.
Defectors who left for purely economic reasons or served time in China for crimes likely face forced labor or reeducation-through-labor. However, the sources told Daily NK that those confirmed to have committed illegal political acts, such as trying to reach South Korea, probably face heavier punishments.
Defectors who made multiple attempts to reach South Korea, or who were in continuous contact with South Koreans, will likely be sent to political prison camps operated by the Ministry of State Security.
An expert told Daily NK that the repatriated defectors may face various human rights abuses during the initial investigation process at the holding center, including torture, beatings and sexual assault.
Given that hardly any female guards work at the holding centers in Sinuiju and Onsong, repatriated women often experience humiliating treatment or molestation during their physical examinations by the male guards.
Lee Seungju, a profiler at the Transitional Justice Working Group, said that the repatriated defectors “will undergo thorough investigations by the North Korean authorities, including into the background of their defections and their activities and foreign contacts in China. There’s great concern that during the investigations, the defectors will be subject to imprisonment, torture, beatings, sexual assault and forced labor.”
South Korean government works to confirm reports
Meanwhile, the South Korean government said it is trying to confirm the veracity of reports regarding the forced repatriations.
In a regular briefing last Thursday, South Korean foreign ministry spokesperson Lim Soo-suk said the government was “trying to confirm the details” regarding the reports and that it is “continuously asking the Chinese side, through several ways, for cooperation so that North Korean defectors overseas are not forcibly repatriated against their will and quickly allowed to go where they wish.”
An official from South Korea’s unification ministry told reporters last Thursday that the government was “trying to confirm the veracity of the reports and keeping an eye on the situation.”
He added that “it’s the government’s position that defectors overseas not be forcibly repatriated against their will, whatever the circumstances, and that forcibly returning somebody to North Korea against their will runs counter to international laws banning forced repatriation.”
Translated by David Black. Edited by Robert Lauler.
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