Military

DATE=6/16/03

TYPE=BACKGROUND REPORT

TITLE=REFUGEES: NORTH KOREA (REFILE)

NUMBER=5-53956

BYLINE=STEPHANIE MANN

DATELINE=WASHINGTON

INTERNET=

VOICED AT:

/// EDITORS: Refiles to clarify first graf of text; This is one in a series of stories looking ahead to World Refugee Day, June 20th ///

INTRO: Refugees fleeing oppression, hunger and privation in North Korea have left their homeland in massive numbers in recent years. Many are in hiding in China. Over the past year, some North Korean refugees have forced their way into embassies or consulates in Chinese cities, drawing international attention to their plight. In this report, prepared as part of our series looking ahead to World Refugee Day, Stephanie Mann examines the question of whether a large exodus of North Korean refugees could destabilize the government in Pyongyang.

TEXT: Most observers agree the North Korean refugee problem is serious -- because of the large numbers of people involved, and because of the dangers they face, both at home and on the run.

Jack Rendler, vice chairman of the United States Committee for Human Rights in North Korea, says an estimated 400-thousand to 500-thousand North Koreans have left their country for China over the last decade. Chinese police regularly round up people, and send them back to North Korea. At any one time, he says, as many as 150-thousand North Korean refugees are living in hiding inside China.

Mr. Rendler says North Koreans who choose to leave in search of food do so because they are desperate. He says they suffer, not only at home, but also when they reach China.

/// RENDLER ACT ONE ///

North Koreans have no freedom of movement, according to the government, and so they are pursued by border guards on their side and across the Tumen River, where most of them make their crossing. And then they are pursued by Chinese (police), in China. And there are now bounties on the heads of North Korean refugees, so that the people who have in the past accepted them with open arms, now can't be trusted to provide them assistance.

/// END ACT ///

/// OPT /// Mr. Rendler says women face the harshest treatment in prison camps, where most repatriated North Koreans are sent.

/// RENDLER ACT TWO ///

We have reliable reports of pregnant women in these detention centers being subjected to forced abortion by the prison guards, beaten until they give birth and then the babies killed as a way of making sure -- we assume -- that the North Korean bloodline is not contaminated by any woman who may have become pregnant by a Chinese father.

/// END ACT /// END OPT ///

China, a long-time ally of North Korea, has been put in a difficult position by North Koreans who have forced their way into foreign embassies and consulates in Chinese cities in hopes of avoiding repatriation and gaining transit to South Korea. Under international pressure, China has allowed most of them to go to South Korea.

Many of the asylum bids at foreign missions were helped by international activists intent on bringing the North Korean refugee issue to the world's attention. One such activist is German doctor Norbert Vollertsen, who draws a parallel to the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989.

/// VOLLERTSEN ACT ///

I believe in a silent collapse, like in East Germany. It started with a flood of refugees to the West German Embassy in Prague, in Hungary. And then, it created the collapse of East Germany, and the collapse of the Berlin Wall. And, therefore, we had the idea to occupy Western embassies in Beijing with North Korean refugees, also in order to create such a flood of refugees in order to destabilize the North Korean government.

/// END ACT ///

Dr. Vollertsen says, initially, most of those fleeing were ordinary workers and their families. But recently, there have also been high-ranking scientists, weapons experts and military.

Jack Rendler does not think a dramatic rise in the numbers of refugees, even if they included high-ranking officials, would lead to collapse in Pyongyang.

/// RENDLER ACT THREE ///

I think that the elite in Pyongyang -- the leadership, the government -- is as firmly in control as it has ever been. I think, economically, they're obviously in trouble, and they can't feed their people. But politically, and socially, culturally, I don't know of any government in the world that has more control over its people than North Korea does.

/// END ACT ///

Kathleen Newland, co-director of the Migration Policy Institute, agrees, saying the refugee outflow in Europe was sudden, and put immediate pressure on East European governments. She says North Korea has a firm grip, and is not susceptible to that kind of popular pressure.

/// NEWLAND ACT ///

And another big difference between the Eastern European scenario and the one that we might imagine here is that Western European countries were eager to receive the refugees, and to give a push toward political change in Eastern Europe. China has not shown that same kind of willingness to sort of play along with these forces, and, therefore, I think, if the North Koreans were more inclined to crack down than to crack, that the Chinese would probably be cooperating with them, rather than opposing them.

/// END ACT ///

An official at the Chinese Embassy in Washington dismisses comparisons of the North Korean and East German refugee situations. First Secretary Sun Weide says Chinese police would be able to effectively control the border, if the number of North Koreans trying to cross into China suddenly rises. Mr. Sun says international groups are the root of the problem.

/// SUN ACT ///

Some non-governmental organizations and also some so-called religious and human rights groups, they have deliberately been involved in organizing the illegal smuggling of people. So we call upon them to stop this practice, so that the illegal immigration issue of the D-P-R-K people can be solved.

/// END ACT ///

The World Food Programme and other aid organizations have warned of the possibility of renewed famine in North Korea, as Pyongyang engages in a diplomatic showdown with the United States over the nuclear weapons issue.

Kathleen Newland points out that Washington has said it will not use food aid as a political instrument. But the United States and other countries have cut off fuel shipments to North Korea, and that has hampered food production. Jack Rendler says, as the situation worsens, he expects more North Koreans may try to leave their country in search of food. (SIGNED)

NEB/SMN/TW/FC