Time Is Running Out for North Koreans Detained in China

Even though some experts speculate that Pyongyang will unlikely open its borders in the near future, China’s new ambassador to North Korea recently became the first diplomat to enter the country since the pandemic as he began his official duties in Pyongyang. As trade between North Korea and China has resumed, it brings much hope to North Koreans in China who have not been able to work or contact their family back home since 2020, “I haven’t been able to see my father and mother in Pyongyang for three years,” explained a woman working at a North Korean restaurant in China.

However, for the estimated 600 to 2,000 defectors arrested and detained in Chinese prisons, the possibility that the country may gradually lift its border restrictions after April 15 to mark Kim Il-sung's birthday means forced deportation to the country they escaped from.

CHINA’S POLICY ON REPATRIATION

Despite China’s status as a signatory to both the 1951 Refugee Convention and its 1967 Protocol relating to the status of refugees, it dutifully honors the 1986 bilateral agreement with Pyongyang to legalize the forced repatriation of defectors to North Korea, where they would be received with brutal punishments. In the past, repatriated defectors faced torture, imprisonment, sexual violence, forced labor in prison camps and even public execution. Chinese law labels North Korean defectors as illegal economic migrants and the authorities actively conduct nationwide crackdowns on North Koreans attempting to transit through the country to seek freedom and protection.

On December 28, 2022, the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the DPRK, Elizabeth Salmon, sent her first public letter to Beijing. She sought information about health conditions and risk of forcible repatriation in relation to a North Korean woman, who was “arrested at an acquaintance's house” in June 2021 and subsequently detained in China. The identified individual was one of the seven North Koreans held by Chinese authorities, whom the previous United Nations special envoy, Tomas Ojea Quintana, claimed to be at risk of arbitrary arrest and forcible repatriation. China had since denied having any knowledge of Quintana’s allegations in its reply in April 2022, highlighting that “people from the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea who illegally enter the country are not refugees and that their actions violate Chinese laws and undermine the country’s order for the management of entry and exit.”

Refugees in Crossing Borders’ network have reported that local police made visits to their houses during the pandemic to reassure them that they would not be deported. They were cautioned by the police, however, to “stay quiet and don’t speak to any foreigners.”

THE TERRIBLE PRICE OF DEFECTION

Despite strict border restrictions imposed by Pyongyang that prevented the Chinese government from freely and routinely repatriating defectors back to North Korea during the pandemic, a source told Radio Free Asia that 50 North Koreans were sent back to Pyongyang by the Dandong customs office in the summer of 2021. Among the escapees were North Korean soldiers and pilots who served in the air force. Chinese citizens expressed sympathy toward the group facing deportation, with one Chinese citizen of Korean descent recounting that, “They said ‘If they leave, they will die. It is horrible that after escaping their country to survive, they are going to be executed young.’ The witnesses even showed hostility toward the police, who are essentially sending them off to die.”

North Korea is not only known to be unforgiving toward defectors, the safety and wellbeing of defectors’ family members are often compromised. A North Korean woman who defected to the South in 2017 told Bloomberg that she could only afford to bring one of her sons with her at the time, and her eldest son who volunteered to stay behind was beaten to death when North Korean authorities found out about their escape.

MASS REPATRIATION

As the number of defections has increased since China lifted its zero-Covid policies, the number of North Korean detainees in China is also projected to rise amidst on-going arrests and “severe” crackdowns by Chinese authorities. As a result, China is expected to resume forced returns of three years’ accumulation of detainees to North Korea as soon as Pyongyang reopens its borders. Although the fate of hundreds or even thousands of North Koreans awaiting mass repatriation remains uncertain, the prison break of defector Zhu Xianjian in 2021 sheds light on the extent defectors are willing to go to avoid returning to North Korea.

North Korea’s Growing Homelessness and Prostitution as Living Conditions Worsen

North Korea’s economy has suffered one of its biggest contractions as it battled through an almost three-year COVID-19 lockdown, the second-worst drought in 40 years and continued international sanctions. As the hermit country’s most vulnerable people slip deeper into starvation, its government ordered periods of intense crackdowns on the rapidly growing number of homeless people along the China-North Korea border for threatening to hinder state emergency quarantine efforts and tarnishing the image of socialism. Meanwhile, more and more women were forced to enter into the sex trade as North Korea’s paralyzed economy left ordinary citizens with no other option for survival. 

ORDERS TO HIDE THE HOMELESS

North Korean authorities were alarmed by the reappearance of crowds of homeless people along the border and feared an upcoming wave of illegal border hoppers and defectors as more people approach the country’s “strict security zones” along the border, which warrants unauthorized trespassers to be shot at unconditionally as part of its COVID-19 preventative measures. 

Most importantly, its leadership was reportedly worried that photos showing homeless North Koreans could be taken from the Chinese side of the border, which a source told Daily NK that they “could be misused in the anti-Republic schemes of enemies, who run around trying to pull down our ideology and socialist system.” According to Daily NK, the Ministry of Social Security recently issued “Order 1541” to intensify crackdowns and take tougher control and management on the homeless. Provincial branches of the ministry were also called to “eradicate” the homeless who appear daily in markets, near train stations, at garbage dumps, along train tracks, in train tunnels and under bridges, and house them in temporary buildings or inns, while homeless adults would be allocated to take part in labor-intensive activities in labor brigades.

INTENSIFIED CRACKDOWNS ON STREET PROSTITUTION

Prostitution became widespread in North Korea since the late 1990s, a time when women were forced to find ways to survive after the government suddenly stopped distributing rations to its people. However, Article 249 of North Korea’s Criminal Code states that women who are caught engaging in prostitution can receive a punishment of up to one year of forced labor, and up to five years at a forced labor correctional facility in more serious cases.

In practice, prostitution is a crime that is even punishable by public execution, mostly by firing squad. For example, in July 2020, the state executed six people including four party officials for operating a prostitution ring that involved female college students and senior officials in Pyongyang. Following a crackdown in August 2020, more than 50 female students from two prominent Pyongyang performing art colleges, who were reportedly driven into prostitution by poverty brought on by the endless demands for school fees, were sent to a labor camp for three to six months for their alleged involvement in a prostitution network that catered to Pyongyang’s elites. The investigation also revealed that under government pressure to raise money, prestigious schools arbitrarily demanded money from students, and as a result, at least 200 school students “who have difficult family circumstances are thereby forced into prostitution.”

North Korean Authorities were ordered to search for suspected prostitutes in train stations

Due to the economic difficulties caused by COVID-19, there has been a rise in the number of North Korean women working as prostitutes. In March 2022, the authorities even arrested mothers of newborns who turned to prostitution in order to put food on the table. More recently, Kim Jong-un ordered the Social Security Department and Socialist Patriotic Youth League to carry out intensive crackdowns on street prostitution in major cities, including Chongjin and Hamhung. A source told Radio Free Asia that on July 30, 2022, district-level meetings were held to educate young people in an effort to deter them from selling their bodies for money, while a meeting in Chongjin’s Sunam district publicly criticized several young female prostitutes, whereby “each of the eight women on the stage revealing their names, ages, home addresses, and their jobs, and forcing them to criticize themselves.” It was reported that the authorities’ searches in train stations, parks and streets for suspected prostitutes have been met with success, with approximately 30 girls in their teens and 20s arrested on the first day of the crackdown as they begged men who were waiting for the train at Hamhung station at night to pay for their services for as little as 30,000 won (U.S. $4.30).

Top NK Headlines - June 2022

CHINA SUSPECTS COVID-19 WIND BLOWS IN FROM NORTH KOREA

• Authorities in Dandong, a Chinese city that shares a 1,300 km (808 miles) border with North Korea, indicated their suspicion that the wind blown into the city from North Korea has resulted in the spike in their daily Covid-19 cases.

• Dandong has been under lockdown since April 26, 2022 and residents were told to stay at home as the city sealed off 41 areas and set 22 places under anti-epidemic control earlier this month.

• Authorities also urged residents living by the Yalu River that runs between China and North Korea to close their windows on days with southerly winds, although there is no scientific evidence showing that the Covid-19 virus is able to survive airborne transmission over long distances in outdoor settings without repeated exposure.

• Images circulating on Weibo, a popular Chinese social media platform, show purported air measurement instruments that have been set up by authorities along the Yalu River to detect Covid-19.

Source: 
Bloomberg 
NK News 
https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202206/1267330.shtml 
https://m.weibo.cn/detail/4776890689126884 
https://m.weibo.cn/detail/4776920435132760 

CASH REWARDS FOR CHINESE WHISTLEBLOWERS TO REPORT ON CROSS-BORDER ACTIVITIES 

• Dandong announced a cash reward system to crack down on cross-border smuggling as Covid-19 “continues to spread and mutate”.

• The reward system runs from May 31, 2022 to December 31, 2022.

• In order to receive cash rewards, one shall report any the following activities to the police: (i) any sea, river or fishing-related illegal acts committed in Dandong; (ii) smuggling by sea in Dandong; (iii) illegal fishing in Dandong; or (iv) any act involving throwing, passing, giving, sending, purchasing or exchanging goods across the barriers at the borders, or picking up goods drifted across the boundary river.

• The notice encourages timely reporting by its citizens. In particular, only the first whistleblower would be rewarded if more than one person reports the same incident, unless additional clues are provided by the subsequent whistleblower.

Source: 
NK News
https://www.dandong.gov.cn/html/DDSZF/202206/0165400850696438.html 

NORTH KOREA ORDERED CITIZENS LIVING ABROAD TO PAY LOYALTY FUNDS TO FINANCE MISSILE TESTS 

• North Korea imposed “loyalty funds” on trade officials stationed in China. A source in the Chinese city of Dalian told Radio Free Asia that they were ordered to pay $3,000 by the end of July 2022 to offset part of the costs for the ballistic missile tests earlier this month.

• According to South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff, eight missiles were fired from four locations into the sea east of the Korean peninsula.

• Loyalty funds are not new to China-based trade officials, as foreign cash has in the past been demanded from Kim Jong-un’s administration, especially during important events such as the military parade held in Pyongyang in April 2022.

• “We are well aware that tens of millions of dollars are spent to launch a single missile. But how many ballistic missiles have been launched this year? I can’t quite understand the behavior of the authorities, who waste foreign currency on missile launches and forcibly impose loyalty funds on us,” the source added, “This is the third time the authorities have imposed a loyalty fund on us this year. This first and second time, though, trade had been partially open, so we could at least pay half of the fund. … This time it is not easy because China is on complete lockdown due to the coronavirus.”

• Radio Free Asia sources estimated that the government would receive around $3 million from the loyalty funds imposed this time, which is an amount far less than the estimated cost of one missile test.

• It is also reported that two North Korean doctors dispatched to work in a hospital in Laos a few years ago were forced to contribute to the loyalty funds. Sources revealed that the North Korean ward is able to earn between $100 and $200 per day on average but is required to pay $3,000 per month to the Pyongyang government, with very little left for the two doctors. As a result, the doctors are “depressed and disappointed because they owe more in loyalty money than they earn.”

Source: 
https://www.rfa.org/english/news/korea/funds-06062022191159.html
https://www.rfa.org/english/news/korea/laos-06142022182130.html 

Choe Son Hui (right), North Korea’s first female foreign minister.

NORTH KOREA IS READY FOR ITS NEXT NUCLEAR TEST UNDER THE COUNTRY’S FIRST FEMALE FOREIGN MINISTER’S LEADERSHIP

• North Korea appointed its top nuclear negotiator, Choe Son Hui, the daughter of former North Korean Prime Minister, as the country’s first female foreign minister. Choe first appeared in the media in 1997 during four-party nuclear negotiations and later during six-party talks in the 2000s, throughout which she had published alternating statements on North Korean state media between threatening a “nuclear showdown” and offering dialogues with its neighbors.

• South Korean Foreign Minister, Park Jin, attended a summit in Washington on June 13, 2022 and stated his belief that North Korea has completed its final preparations to carry out the seventh nuclear test since 2006 and its first since September 2017.

• Park spoke at a press conference alongside U.S. Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, threatening the North with additional international sanctions as well as increased military pressure if Pyongyang goes ahead with the test, and warning that “North Korea should change its mind and make the right decision.”

• However, according to a senior fellow at the Cato Institute, Doug Bandow, sanctions imposed on North Korea so far has not changed its policies and would be unlikely to have any greater impact going forward. 

Source: 
CNN 
VOA News 
Daily Mail

Top NK Headlines - May 2022

COVID-19 RAVAGES NORTH KOREA

• 2.8M have experienced “fever” and sickness and 479,400 people are in treatment. This represents 11 percent of the North Korean population who may have contracted COVID-19

• President Biden, during a visit with newly elected South Korean president Yoon Suk-yeol shared in a joint appearance with president Yoon "We've offered vaccines, not only to North Korea but to China as well, and we're prepared to do that immediately… we've got no response." 

• State media has recommended remedies such as herbal tea, gargling salt-water and taking painkillers such as ibuprofen.

BBC.com
38North.org

EXHAUSTED PYONGYANG RESIDENTS FORCED TO ATTEND 17-HOUR “COVID-SUPERSPREADER" MILITARY PARADE

• North Korea hosted an extravagant military parade on April 25, 2022 where it gathered more than 20,000 soldiers to showcase its military equipment, including the Hwasong-17 intercontinental ballistic missile, to commemorate the 90th anniversary of the Korean People’s Revolutionary Army.  

• Kim Jong-un praised students and young workers who participated in the parade for their “patriotism and high enthusiasm for the revolution and struggle.”  However, participants said the parade did little to improve morale and a resident of Chongjin told Radio Free Asia that “[residents] did not hide their disappointment, saying that no one believed the authorities’ propaganda.”

• A city official said that the event was only publicly announced just before it began, and “[from] the dawn on the 25th, about 100,000 Pyongyang citizens waited at Kim Il Sung Square for 17 hours to make the military parade possible...[they] were all totally exhausted.”

• Sources also revealed that since Pyongyang citizens have been trying to avoid parade duties, the government began to force them to practise watching or marching in parades two months in advance, “[now] the number of participants are assigned to each neighborhood watch unit and they are forcibly mobilized.”  Citizens complained that they were unable to do business during the two-month practice period and were not compensated for their loss.

• To ensure Kim Jong-un's security, authorities blocked all mobile communications in Pyongyang and even instructed participants to dress in black until just before the ceremony started in order to avoid being detected by satellites.

Source:
https://www.rfa.org/english/news/korea/parade-04292022195652.html 
http://www.koreaherald.com/view.php?ud=20220502000125&np=1&mp=1 
https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/east-asia/article/3177889/coronavirus-superspreader-military-parade-blamed-deadly-north 
https://www.rfa.org/english/news/korea/covid-05132022203718.html 

HUNGRY NORTH KOREAN WORKERS IN CHINA WORK BEHIND CLOSED DOORS AMIDST LOCKDOWN

• A source told Daily NK that North Korean factory workers in the city of Dandong, China have remained in their dormitories under orders to keep working behind closed doors since their plants shut down following regional Covid-19 lockdowns.

• The source added that those managing the workers were supposed to bulk buy food through a Chinese shopping strategy called “group buying” but had failed to do so, which resulted in the challenges of acquiring food with the current implementation of bans on movement.

• Although the managers have now picked up on the “group buying” method, workers were not receiving sufficient food due to the soaring food prices in China. The cost of eggs, for instance, have more than tripled in price since the lockdown began and a head of cabbage which used to cost approx. $0.29 USD is now a shocking $7.37 USD.

• North Koreans workers struggled to send authorities a set quota of “loyalty funds” since the Chinese factories shut down, resulting in a cut in their monthly wages.

• Nonetheless, many workers who used to work 10 to 12 hours a day all month for less than RMB 500 (approx. $73.73 USD) said that they could now rest, despite being frustrated about the lack of support from the North Korean embassy in China.

Source:
https://www.dailynk.com/english/north-korean-workers-china-face-challenges-purchasing-enough-food-amid-lockdowns/ 

JUDGE FEARS NORTH KOREA COULD MURDER U.S. MARINE VET

• U.S. Magistrate Judge Jean Rosenbluth issued an unusual decision concerning her order for the extradition of Christopher Ahn, a former U.S. Marine veteran who took part in a raid on North Korea’s Madrid embassy in February 2019, to face trial in Spain.

• Ahn claimed in his case that he was part of an anti-North Korea group called “Free Joseon (Free Korea)” who had entered the embassy to help North Koreans who wanted to defect.

• According to court documents, the group left the building with computer drives, a cell phone, and other electronic information, which they later turned over to the FBI.

• Ahn returned to California after the incident and was arrested in April 2019.  Spain later sought his extradition on 6 criminal charges carrying a potential sentence of over 10 years in prison.

• Judge Rosenbluth wrote in her ruling that “[in] part because of his participation in the embassy incident, North Korea wants to kill Ahn...I must decide whether to certify his extradition to Spain, where North Korea can much more easily murder him. Although I conclude that the law requires me to certify, I do not think it’s the right result, and I hope that a higher court will either tell me I’m wrong or itself block the extradition.”

• During an interview with Fox News last year, Ahn expressed his disappointment that “[the] same Department of Justice that has told me that if I leave the country that I could be assassinated is the same Department of Justice that’s trying to extradite me.”

Source:
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/judge-warns-north-korea-murder-us-marine-vet-spain-rcna28154 
https://nypost.com/2022/05/10/us-judge-forced-to-allow-extradition-of-ex-marine-christopher-ahn-to-spain-fears-hell-be-killed/ 
https://www.nknews.org/2022/05/us-judge-approves-extradition-of-american-who-raided-dprk-embassy-in-spain/ 

NORTH KOREA COMPLETES NUCLEAR TEST PREPARATIONS DESPITE COVID-19 OUTBREAK 

• South Korea’s spy agency revealed that there are signs North Korea could launch an intercontinental ballistic missile as part of its seventh nuclear test after completing its preparations amid Covid-19 outbreak.

• Kim Byung-kee of the Democratic Party told reporters that “[it] would not be abnormal for North Korea to launch a missile or conduct a nuclear test at one point, as signs [of such provocations] are detected and Pyongyang has almost completed its preparations.”

• The first deputy chief of South Korea’s presidential National Security Office, Kim Tae-hyo, also said that a nuclear launch appears to be “imminent.”

Source:
https://en.yna.co.kr/view/AEN20220519006400320?section=nk/nk

The 2022 COVID-19 Crisis in Unvaccinated North Korea

North Korea is currently facing a major crisis that threatens the lives of potentially hundreds of thousands of its citizens due to the recent and rapid outbreak of COVID-19. 

North Korean refugees with contacts in both China and North Korea have shared with us that the situation in North Korea is far worse than Kim Jong-un lets on. Some estimate the death toll to be as high as 10 percent of the population once COVID-19 has ravaged the country. 

A refugee recently shared with us that the North Korean government can no longer lie to its people anymore because of text messaging between its citizens, which is why the regime has recently admitted publicly that the country is affected by the pandemic. He also said that North Korea tried to administer the vaccine over the past year but because the mRNA vaccines need to be refrigerated, vaccination efforts fell flat due to the lack of access to reliable electricity. 

Outside of the vaccine, basic medical supplies to treat symptoms of COVID-19 are not available. The country recently asked their ally China for help. North Korea stocked three of its cargo planes with basic medical supplies provided by their neighbor, a far cry from the aid, expertise and technology needed to stave off the disease. In the absence of COVID treatments, North Korea’s state run media have encouraged the use of painkillers and antibiotics, as well as unverified home remedies, such as gargling salt water, or drinking lonicera japonica tea or willow leaf tea.

When asked if this could mean trouble for the Kim regime in North Korea, refugees say that this can absolutely spell danger for the Kim family regime, which has ruled over the country for more than 70 years. North Korea has been relegated to blaming South Korean activists for dropping the virus into the country via propaganda balloons. 

LOCKING DOWN A STARVING NATION

North Korean state media, Rodong Sinmun, reported that Kim Jong-un told North Korean authorities to study and actively follow the “policies, successes, and experiences” of China. At the cost of significantly increasing the odds of mass starvation, their leader “called on all the cities and counties of the whole country to thoroughly lock down their areas and organize work and production after closing each working unit, production unit and living unit from each other so as to flawlessly and perfectly block the spread vacuum of the malicious virus.” 

In a country that is on the brink of famine, the threat of COVID-19 appears to be second to the pressing food crisis, as a ruling party member in North Hamgyong province commented that “[people] are going to factories and to their places of work as normal. The authorities don’t want work to be disrupted...People are worried about how to survive.”  The seriousness of the situation was reflected by their leader’s 2022 New Year remarks, which took many by surprise as he emphasized agricultural output, rather than the party’s favored nuclear weapons and missiles developments. Although starvation is no novelty to North Korea, the combination of food and healthcare insecurity matched with a deadly respiratory virus is a new and frightening challenge. Journalists in South Korea also reported signs of normal agricultural activity in farms to the south, suggesting there may be a rural-urban divide in how lockdowns are being implemented, especially during North Korea’s rice planting season, which runs from May through October.  

KIM JONG-UN'S RESPONSE

At a meeting of the ruling Workers’ Party, Kim Jong-un criticized the “immaturity in the state capacity for coping with the crisis” which increased the “complexity and hardship” in fighting the pandemic.  Following which, health officials have developed a COVID-19 treatment guide to prevent drug overdoses and medical mistreatments that resulted in many of the reported deaths, though it is unclear exactly what drugs are currently used to treat patients with COVID-19.  Kim Jong-un also ordered the distribution of medicine released from state reserves and mobilized his army of nearly 3,000 members of the Korean People’s Army’s medical units to transport medical supplies to pharmacies in Pyongyang.  Meanwhile, more than 1.4 million officials, teachers, and students in the public health sector were deployed to identify people with COVID-19 symptoms.

NORTH KOREA'S PANDEMIC RESPONSE THUS FAR

North Korea has fought the pandemic as a matter of “national survival” since COVID-19 emerged in China back in January 2020.  As one of the first countries to close borders due to COVID-19, Pyongyang set up an “emergency quarantine command” specifically to deal with the spread of the virus and pledged that it would not open its borders until a cure was found.  The COVID-19 measures taken extended beyond suspending trade with China, which plays a pivotal part in North Korea’s economy, to systematically rejecting humanitarian aid such as vaccines from foreign countries and even executing a citizen for bringing goods through customs in violation of Covid-related quarantine measures. The world's attention was once again drawn to the North’s strict restrictions when it announced that it would not participate in the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo due to concerns over potential exposure to COVID-19, which led to the country’s suspension from participating in the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing. By April 2021, many foreign diplomats left the isolated country amidst severe food and drug shortages. Later that month, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un said the country was facing its “worst-ever situation” comparable to the great famine in the 1990’s and called the party to wage another Arduous March to fight the economic hardship.  

Despite adopting harsh lockdown and enforcement measures, including the shoot-on-sight orders, North Korea’s self-proclaimed perfect zero-covid record was recently overrun by 1.5 million “fever” cases (a euphemism for suspected COVID-19, given the lack of testing capacity necessary to confirm diagnosis of COVID-19) that resulted in over 62 deaths to date. However, some observers noted that the number of reported cases lacks accuracy as authorities may deliberately underreport cases to disguise the seriousness of the crisis and ease the pressure on their leader.  Not a single North Korean citizen is known to have received COVID-19 vaccination. An outbreak of the omicron variant within its borders could unleash a humanitarian crisis, especially in the context of a dire economy following trade suspensions, natural disasters, unfavorable harvests and widespread starvation, a broken healthcare system, and years of international sanctions imposed in response to ballistic missile tests.