Human Rights and Refugee Status of the North Korean Diaspora1

Abstract

IntroductionSince the mid-1990s, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea's (DPRK) economic collapse and subsequent food crisis have caused numerous North Koreans to starve to death. Moreover, such events have prompted thousands to seek refuge in the Republic of China (PRC) and beyond. An estimated 600,000 to over 2 million North Koreans were killed by the famine.2 It is also estimated that approximately 100,000-300,000 North Koreans moved to China.3 Many North Korean escapees in northeast China have lived in hiding from crackdowns and forced repatriations by the PRC and neighboring countries, vulnerable to abuse and exploitation. The food crisis has resulted in an explosive increase in the migration of North Koreans to northeast China, other neighboring Asian countries, and, thereafter, the Republic of Korea (ROK). As of December 2012, North Koreans who arrived in South Korea numbered 24,614.4 Furthermore, one in three North Korean escapees is heading to countries other than South Korea, and many escapees want to defect to Western countries, such as the United States and the United Kingdom.5 While North Koreans in South Korea have been granted ROK citizenship, many North Korean asylum seekers staying in other countries have not been under legal or humanitarian protection. Due to political, diplomatic and legal problems in the international and domestic contexts, the North Korean diaspora has maintained an illegal or unstable status as border-crossing people or trespassers.Until now, existing studies have researched the migration and human rights violations of North Koreans in terms of refugee status under international law. Are North Korean escapees political refugees, economic migrants or simply border-crossing people? This has been one of the critical questions regarding the North Korean diaspora. While North Korean escapees are often referred to as refugees in mass media, in many cases, especially in Asian transit countries, they have not received refugee protection under international law as well as from the concerned countries' domestic law. Today, most of the related Northeast and Southeast Asian countries rarely guarantee refugee status to North Koreans, and the U.S. and European countries also enforce a very selective policy of admitting North Koreans. In this regard, Western and South Korean civic organizations of North Korean human rights argue that those defecting due to human rights violations should undeniably be granted refugee status.The number of refugees of concern to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) stood at 10.5 million at the beginning of 2011. The Convention relating to the Status of Refugees (Refugee Convention) in 1951 and the Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees (Refugee Protocol) in 1967 provide a framework for the legal protection of a large number of displaced people. The Refugee Convention defines "refugee" as "someone who is unable or unwilling to return to their country of origin owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group, or political opinion." 6 According to UNHCR, as of January 2013, the total population of concern in the case of North Koreans is 1542, and among this, the number of refugees is 1052 and that of asylum seekers is 490.7 Here, the dilemma is whether to use the term "refugee" at all in referring to North Koreans who depart their country of origin illegally. This is because a majority of North Koreans leave the DPRK primarily in search of food, not for fear of persecution. However, North Koreans' defections due to food shortages and forced repatriations in many cases lead to human rights violations, such as a total denial of political, civil and religious rights as well as severe physical abuse in DPRK prison camps.8 Therefore, UNHCR claims that North Koreans, especially those living in China and other Asian transit countries, should be considered as refugees sur place because they face the threat of persecution upon returning to North Korea even though they leave their country in search of food. …