N. Korean defections strain ties

YANJI, China — The slow exodus of North Koreans is posing increasingly vexing diplomatic problems for South Korea and China, both grappling with North Korea’s decay.

Every year, hundreds of North Koreans fleeing hunger, poverty and oppression cross the border into China, hoping to continue on to South Korea. Though Beijing has allowed large groups of defectors to go to South Korea through third countries, it sees them as illegal economic migrants subject to repatriation. North Korean law mandates a minimum two-year prison sentence for those who leave.

The issue has put South Korea and China at loggerheads; meanwhile, defectors and activists contend that humanitarian issues get short shrift.

“When I came to China, I learned that people in North Korea eat worse than a pig in China,” said a 34-year-old North Korean woman who revealed only her surname, Moon. She works in a restaurant in this dusty border city, which has a large population of ethnic Koreans, while waiting to go to South Korea.

South Korea received a record 1,890 North Korean defectors last year. They are granted citizenship, but the Seoul government recently made clear its opposition to large-scale defections that have caused tensions with China.

Starting this year, Seoul slashed resettlement money given to North Korean refugees by two-thirds, to about $9,000. In the past, defectors often used the money to finance the escape of relatives through activist networks and human brokers.

The government “clearly opposes organized defections,” Unification Minister Chung Dong-young told reporters recently. “For the people in the North to live their lives in the North with their families is necessary, both for individuals and for coexistence and coprosperity.”

Refugees do make it to South Korea, although scenes of North Koreans being greeted with flowers don’t always ensue.

A 24-year-old defector living in South Korea said escaping from China was somewhat easier than dealing with confrontational South Korean Embassy and National Intelligence Service (NIS) officials. She lived in China for several years before a failed escape attempt through Burma. Eventually, she left China and in 2002 went to the South Korean Embassy in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

“We went in and sat down, and my wife just said: ‘I’m a North Korean. I want to defect,’ ” said her American husband, who was with her at the time. “She apparently had been the first one there. They didn’t know what to do.”

After several frustrating days, South Korean authorities allowed them to fly to Seoul, the couple said. But when they arrived, NIS agents boarded the plane, cursing and roughing them up. “They were just totally anti-defector,” said the American, who speaks fluent Korean. “It’s always been that way.”

Neither the American nor his wife wanted their names used, fearing more harassment.

South Korean opposition lawmakers have accused President Roh Moo-hyun’s administration of ignoring the plight of refugees as he concentrates on improving ties with North Korea.

Four lawmakers of South Korea’s conservative Grand National Party traveled to Yanji to investigate the reported abduction of a South Korean pastor by North Korean agents. It is thought the Rev. Kim Dong-shik was pushed into a taxi in February 2000 and taken to Pyongyang after years helping North Korean refugees escape.

Seoul prosecutors have since a charged a Korean-Chinese man, Ryu Yeong-hwa, with kidnapping Mr. Kim on orders from North Korea’s State Safety and Security Agency.

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