China Must End 'Political Games', Say N. Korean Refugee Advocates
WASHINGTON – Protestors gathered in front of the Chinese embassy on Saturday to condemn China’s “political games” in dealing with North Korean refugees.
North Korean defectors, top human rights advocates, pastors, and concerned citizens delivered passionate speeches and waved posters calling for an end to the repatriation of North Korean refugees.
Letters of support from Sen. Brownback (R-Kan.) and Hwang Jang-Yop – former secretary of the North Korean Workers Party and the highest ranking defector from North Korea – were read by executive committee members of the North Korea Freedom Coalition.
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“North Korean refugees and defectors are the direct victims of the Kim Jong-Il’s dictatorship and human rights violation,” read the letter of Hwang Jang-Yop, chairman of the Exile Committee for North Korea Democracy and the chairman of Free North Korea Radio. “They are the freedom fighters and main part of the democratization of the North Korea movement. They are not economic migrants but political refugees.
“We have to demand safe passage for those refugees in China and other countries to South Korea,” wrote Hwang who is currently residing in South Korea. He condemned the “barbaric” treatment of North Korean refugees by China and noted that the defectors will be the “main driving force” for a united, democratic Korean peninsula.
The Rev. Heemoon Lee of Hana Presbyterian Church in Maryland explained the importance from a Christian perspective of fighting for the North Korean refugees.
“There are a lot of people who are created in the image of God but are not treated according to what God planned,” the long-time North Korea advocate told The Christian Post. “So the North Korean refugees are one of those people.”
He called upon the Chinese government to stop thinking and playing “political games” by referring to the refugees as illegal migrant, but instead to help or allow them safe passage to countries supportive of the North Korea refugees including the United States, South Korea, Thailand and Mongolia.
“This is not political but it is God’s command,” stated Lee. “We know and we cannot be silent and ignorant because they are suffering. We want to share all our blessings and we feel this is our basic Christian responsibility to care for those people who are suffering.”
The protest in Washington, D.C., was only one of the 15 cities in 12 countries where people gathered on Saturday to demonstrate against China’s repatriation of North Korean refugees.
Others who spoke Saturday included Suzanne Scholte, chairman of the North Korea Freedom Coalition; the Rev. Phillip Buck, a man responsible for helping over 1,000 North Korean refugees hiding in China; Young-Chul kim, a North Korean defector helped by Buck; and Debra Liang-Fenton, executive director of U.S. Committee for Human Rights in North Korea.
“North Koreans in China are vulnerable. There situations are desperate. Lives are hanging in the balance,” concluded Liang-Fenton. “They cannot speak out for themselves, so let us be the messengers. Let us tell the world that this situation will not stand.”
