MFA Spokesman Calls North Koreans in China "Illegal Migrants" and "Not Refugees"

Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) spokesman Qin Gang reiterated at a September 19 press conference the Chinese government's longstanding view that North Koreans entering China without documents "are not refugees" but "illegal migrants" who "come to China because of economic reasons," according to a transcript of his remarks (in Chinese) on the MFA Web site. The MFA's English transcript of Qin Gang's regular press conference on September 19 did not include any discussion of North Korean refugees in China.

The Penal Code of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) criminalizes border crossing without official documentation for any reason, and therefore North Korean defectors fleeing starvation in their homeland qualify under international law as refugees sur place, or those who may not have met the definition of a refugee when they left their country of origin, but can be categorized as refugees at a later date. Repatriated North Koreans face long prison sentences, torture, and execution.

Qin maintained that the Chinese government consistently deals with North Korean refugees "in accordance with the relevant domestic laws, international laws, and humanitarian principles." The Chinese government, however, forcibly repatriates several thousand North Koreans to the DPRK each year, according to the State Department's 2002, 2003, 2004, and 2005 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices (China section). The government's repatriation of North Korean refugees contravenes its obligations under the UN 1951 Convention and 1967 Protocol relating to the Status of Refugees. Article 33 of the convention and protocol mandates that "no Contracting State shall expel or return ('refouler') a refugee in any manner whatsoever to the frontiers of territories where his life or freedom would be threatened on account of his race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion."

"[T]he Chinese government is firmly opposed to [North Koreans in China because they] rush foreign embassies and diplomatic missions ... and disrupt China's public order," according to Qin. North Koreans seeking asylum have done so consistently from international school grounds and diplomatic complexes. The government continues to refuse the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) access to North Korean refugees, contravening a 1995 agreement between the UN and the Chinese government (the agreement is reproduced beginning on page 30 of Professor Tarik M. Radwan's April 28, 2004, written statement submitted to the U.S. House of Representatives). The agreement provides that "UNHCR personnel may at all times have unimpeded access to refugees and to the sites of UNHCR projects in order to monitor all phases of their implementation."

Qin made his remarks in response to a question about whether representatives of the Chinese and U.S. governments would discuss how to resolve the cases of two North Korean refugees who entered the U.S. Consulate General in Shenyang in September. According to a September 19 Yonhap report, the two North Koreans entered the U.S. Consulate by scaling a wall that separates it from the South Korean Consulate. In July, the Chinese government allowed three North Korean refugees who had entered the U.S. Consulate in Shenyang in the same manner to travel directly to the United States to seek asylum.

For more information on North Korean Refugees in China, see Section IX of the CECC's 2006 Annual Report.