[USFK Forums] Bush, Lefkowitz Rebuke China for NK Repatriations; Stand Strong for NK

[C. Y. Lee]

Uploaded this e-mail from Ms. Suzanne Scholte by C. Y. Lee on Saturday, April 1, 2006

[E-mail] Bush. Lefkowiz Rebuke China for NK Repatriasions: Stand Strong for NK Refugees

<mrcylee@naver.com>

06-04-01(토) 10:37:04 06-04-01(토) 10:37:05

From: Skswm@aol.com View Contact Details Add Mobile Alert
Date: Fri, 31 Mar 2006 08:03:47 EST

Subject: Bush, Lefkowitz Rebuke China for NK Repatriations; Stand Strong for NK Refugees

To: Skswm@aol.com

Dear Friends:

I am very excited to forward on these very strong statements by President Bush and Special Envoy Jay Lefkowitz regarding China's repatriation of North Korean refugees in which both cited the recent repatriation of Kim Chun-Hee and China's refusal to abide by the international treaties it has signed.

Suzanne

p.s. Don't forget: North Korea Freedom Week April 22-30. Rally at West Front-US Capitol Friday April 28, Noon. See schedule and updates at nkfreedom.org

THE WHITE HOUSE

Office of the Press Secretary

(Cancun, Mexico)

For Immediate Release March 30, 2006

STATEMENT BY THE PRESS SECRETARY

The United States is gravely concerned about China?셲 treatment of Kim Chun-Hee. Despite U.S., South Korean, and UNHCR attempts to raise this case with the Chinese, Ms. Kim, an asylum seeker in her thirties, was deported to North Korea after being arrested in December for seeking refuge at two Korean schools in China. We are deeply concerned about Ms. Kim?셲 well-being. The United States notes China's obligations as a party to the UN Convention relating to the Status of Refugees and its 1967 Protocol, and believes that China must take those obligations seriously. We also call upon the Government of China not to return North Korean asylum seekers without allowing UNHCR access to these vulnerable individuals.



U.S. envoy on North Korean human rights urges world to confront Pyongyang on abuses

By FOSTER KLUG, Associated Press Writer

The U.S. envoy on North Korean human rights rebuked China on Thursday for turning away North Korean refugees and suggested South Korea could do more to confront Pyongyang on abuses.

Jay Lefkowitz, during a speech at the conservative American Enterprise Institute think tank, also urged the world to join the United States in pressuring North Korea to respect its citizens' rights. His comments come amid stalled international diplomatic efforts to rid the North of its nuclear weapons programs.

"A key way to empower the North Korean people is to force a ray of light through the veil that Kim Jong Il has drawn over North Korea," Lefkowitz said, referring to the North's leader. "We cannot on our own bring this about. We require an international coalition."

Lefkowitz said U.S. problems with North Korea including alleged counterfeiting of U.S. currency, drug smuggling, weapons sales and efforts to build a nuclear arsenal are "the predictable conduct of a government that possesses no apparent respect for the rights of its own citizens."

North Korea has boycotted international nuclear talks since November, refusing to return until the United States lifts financial restrictions on the North for its alleged currency counterfeiting and money laundering. Washington says the issues are not linked.

Lefkowitz, whom U.S. President George W. Bush appointed last year to raise the human rights issue and to provide help for refugees fleeing the North, said North Korean refugees in China "are neglected; they are not treated humanely."

China, he said, is "violating and ignoring" its international pledge to protect and recognize those refugees and is "severely impeding" U.N. officials from helping.

He also criticized nations that may be helping Pyongyang unwittingly by not monitoring whether food aid is being diverted from the hungry to the black market or to feed North Korea's 1 million-strong military.

He did not mention specific countries, but South Korean food aid is delivered directly to the North Korean government rather than through international aid groups. The South Korean government insists its donations are delivered to ordinary citizens.

When asked if South Korea is doing enough to confront the North's rights abuses, Lefkowitz said he is "not sure, from a tactical approach, they are doing everything that I would be recommending to them," but the South had the same long-term goal as the United States a free Korean Peninsula.

He said it was "important for the South Korean government to listen carefully to the people in South Korea," who have "made it very clear that human rights issues are a significant concern and should be very much front and center on the agenda in that country."

The North, Lefkowitz said, suppresses religious freedom, which creates "a higher moral authority than the despotic rulers. It might, in fact, lead one to question the cult of personality that has come to become the government of North Korea."

Lefkowitz added, "We have to engage in this process without fear that a little bit of criticism will set us back. On the contrary, when we speak the truth about freedom and liberty, the truth resonates."

Lefkowitz also said "a series of hurdles" had hampered U.S. efforts to allow North Korean refugees into the United States, including questions about whether people coming from the North are refugees or government agents.

U.S. lawmakers from both political parties have expressed frustration with the State Department over what they see as a lack of progress on a law meant to help refugees from North Korea to settle in the United States.

No North Koreans had been offered asylum since Bush signed into law the North Korean Human Rights Act in October 2004, lawmakers said last month.

Lefkowitz had no timeline for when refugees might begin arriving, he said, "but I am hopeful and really confident that we are at a turning point now in our ability to bring North Korean refugees here if they are legitimate refugees."


March 30, 2006

(End)