Wednesday, October 12, 2005
JoongAng Daily: China changes tack on asylum (hat tip: Mingi Hyun)
The Foreign Ministry announced yesterday that it had learned on Thursday that the would-be defectors had been deported back to their homeland a month after they made their asylum bid at the school.
Police entered the school grounds and arrested the North Koreans shortly after South Korean diplomats asked Chinese authorities to transfer them to embassy custody...
...Despite Beijing's repeated assertions that it would deal with refugees using international humanitarian standards, it began warning a year ago that it would punish people who assisted would-be North Korean defectors. The first warnings came after it arrested two South Koreans accompanying a group of North Koreans seeking asylum...
You'll know China is getting serious about pressuring North Korea when they stop helping to keep the inmates in the asylum. Allowing escape from a fear society becomes a major source of weakness for such a place, as hope of escape starts lessening fear of the regime. No prison is so hopeless and needs so little energy to guard as one who's inmates have no hope of release.
China is helping the North keep the bars in place. Then again, South Korea isn't exactly serious, either:
