[USFK Forums] China Repatriates Another N. Korean Refugees [Chosun]

[C. Y. Lee]

Uploaded by C. Y. Lee on Wednesday, March 22, 2006

China Repatriates Another N.Korean Refugee

Updated Mar.21,2006 19:05 KST

A North Korean defector who repeatedly sought shelter in Korean schools in China last December was deported to the North on Feb. 25, diplomats said Tuesday. A South Korean diplomat said Seoul’s Embassy was given the news by the Chinese Foreign Ministry and registered its protest. Lee Chun-shil had entered the Korean school in the Dalian area on Nov. 31 last year and asked school administrators for shelter, but to no avail.

Three days later, in the morning of Dec. 2 , Lee entered another Korean international school in Beijing saying she had come to inquire about admission to the school for her children. According to South Korean Foreign Ministry officials, Lee neither identified herself as a North Korean refugee nor asked for safe passage to South Korea. She left voluntarily and was arrested by Chinese authorities at the gate when she returned to the school an hour later asking to speak to the director.

Diplomats said international school premises are not inviolable and Beijing’s policy is to repatriate North Korean defectors who enter them. The schools themselves are reluctant to shelter refugees for fear of friction with Chinese authorities. To stem a growing tide of North Korean refugees who seek shelter in Korean schools, Beijing also sent back seven of them who entered an international school in Yentai last September.


url: http://english.chosun.com/w21data/ht...603210022.html