UN Experts Raise Concern Over North Korean Refugees

Five UN Expert Mandates Raise Concern Over the Conditions of North Korean Refugees Refouled by China to North Korea Where They Risk Torture and Inhumane Treatment

GENEVA - Switzerland, August 15 — “We express our utmost concern for the risk of irreparable damage to the physical and psychological integrity of the aforementioned individuals, as well as the serious risk of grave human rights violations,” the UN experts write in a recently publicised communication regarding the North Korean refugees repatriated from China to North Korea in September-October 2023.

Reem Alsalem, UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls, draws attention to the UN Communication on X [formerly known as twitter]: “the letter I joined to the Government of the #DPRK concerning serious human rights violations, including gender-based violence, and the risk of torture and extrajudicial killings of individuals that were forcibly repatriated by China to the DPRK is now public.”

The UN Communication follows an earlier urgent action petition by the Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances sent in September 2023.  The response to the initial communication of concern was met by complete denial by the Democratic People’s Republic of North Korea (DPRK). The North Korea Freedom Coalition also initiated a global call on Xi Jinping to stop repatriating North Korean refugees. 

“While the government of China tried to quietly restart its pre-pandemic repatriations of North Korean refugees in September-October 2023, the news of the refoulements was well-documented and traced,” Jason West, Vice-Chairman with the North Korea Freedom Coalition explains, “allowing for strong and vocal action by the UN experts and others.”  

The UN experts’ communication provides details on guard treatment of the North Korean refugees during the initial interrogations in the pre-trial detention centres of the Ministry of State Security, explaining how the detained were, “searched, interrogated and beaten.”

The communication describes in detail how women face “strip and invasive body searches […] which constitutes gender-based violence, including torture in some cases,” these descriptions match previous reporting on the treatment by North Korean officials of North Korean refugee women refouled to the country. 

The communication by the UN experts also notes that the aims of the initial interrogations by the North Korean authorities of the refugees - “the vast majority of whom are women” - was to: “establish the reasons why the individuals left the country, their activities abroad, the length of stay, their connections with the Republic of Korea and religious groups and identifying anyone who helped them leave the country.” Jubilee Campaign has raised concerns with the DPRK’s torture and maltreatment of repatriated North Korean refugees with various UN bodies consistently, in 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024; also noting specifically how women of faith experience “a magnification of customary gender-based violence in detention if they do have a religious identity [as a result of North Korea’s view on religion generally].”

The UN Communication concludes by requesting clarification on various points. The allegation letter asks for specifics regarding whereabouts of a handful of named detainees and requests clarification regarding the protection of women in detention from “torture and other forms of ill-treatment,” and requests that the DPRK guarantee that families and legal representatives of all “detainees particularly in kwansilo” are informed of their fate and whereabouts. 

The 10-page allegation letter by the UN experts, receives a  note of receipt by the DPRK Mission in Geneva.  In the DPRK’s five-paragraph response, it fails to address any of the UN experts’ questions and “categorically denies and rejects” the full contents of the letter. The DPRK refers to the contents of the allegation letter as having “no relevance with genuine promotion of human rights and protection of human rights,” [our emphasis], alluding to the DPRK having a different interpretation of human rights. DPRK also hints at its own priorities, referring to the expressed concern of the repatriated refugees as “hostile forces to tarnish the dignified image of socialist system of the DPRK,” and noting it is a country and system which: “enjoys the absolute trust and support of its entire people.” The DPRK’s response solidifies the threats faced by those who flee North Korea and are repatriated, they are branded as “hostile forces” merely for choosing to leave for survival, food, and freedom.

Jubilee Campaign decries the refoulement of North Korean refugees by China and the DPRK’s treatment of its citizens and those repatriated. As China is a member of two critical UN bodies: the UN Security Council and the UN Human Rights Council, it has an even greater burden to uphold its human rights commitments; which makes its violations of a jus cogens norm [Article 3 Convention Against Torture], by forcibly repatriating North Koreans, even more glaring.  

Background:

DPRK state policies in response to the COVID-19 pandemic put a temporary halt on China’s record of forcible repatriations of North Korean refugees to North Korea when they closed their borders with China. The respite from China’s forcible repatriation of North Korean refugees ended however, with September-October 2023 mass repatriations of North Korean refugees from China. These repatriations mark the first documented refoulement since the outbreak of the pandemic, and a worrying signal that China will pick up its record of violating the principle of non-refoulement by forcing North Korean refugees back to the country they fled from, where they risk torture, inhuman treatment, arbitrary detention and extrajudicial killing.