‘Vanishing into the abyss’: Horrific claims as North Korean defectors shipped back to homeland

Two months ago, buses and vans were escorted by heavily guarded Chinese security officials from a range of detention centres to North Korean border crossings.

An estimated 33,000 North Koreans have fled their authoritarian homeland for the South, where they are entitled to citizenship and financial support after lengthy interviews with intelligence services.

But most defectors flee the hermit kingdom northwards to China, where they face heightened risks of arrest and deportation. Many who attempt to flee North Korea are trafficked, but for those who make it to China, their fate “can be even more bleak”.

The Seoul-based Transitional Justice Working Group [TJWG] says forced repatriations all but seal the fates of those sent back to Pyongyang, where they face lifelong imprisonment and even death.

The rights group said due to the information black hole in North Korea, no channels of communication have been established with the defectors since they were sent back nearly two months ago.

“Torture, sexual and gender-based violence, imprisonment in concentration camps, forced abortions and execution await those forcibly returned in largest mass repatriation of its kind in years,” TJWG said in a statement.

The identity of most of the 600 forcibly deported people remains unknown, but over 70 per cent are women, according to the rights group.

Open-source investigations have revealed five border crossing points in China’s Jilin and Liaoning provinces used to deport the defectors back to North Korea. These include Dandong to Sinuiju, Changbai to Hyesan, Helong to Musan, Tumen to Onsong and Hunchun to Kyongwon.

Pressure is mounting on the UK, US, and other governments to respond after TJWG publicly criticised world leaders at a recent event at the Assembly of States Parties.

They called on governments to make more meaningful efforts “to prevent many more North Koreans vanishing into the abyss”.

One woman who said her sister was deported spoke out at another event in New York.

“My sister’s only crime was being born in North Korea … All I want is for her to live in safety,” she said.

TJWG says there are concerns for the thousands of North Korean defectors remaining in China, referring to them as “sitting ducks” who could be deported “at any moment”.

China has attempted to squash pressure from South Korea over the wellbeing of North Korean defectors inside its border. In October, Seoul’s Unification Ministry said it had raised its concerns with Beijing after Chinese authorities repatriated a “large number” of North Koreans living in the northeastern provinces of Jilin and Liaoning.

Beijing, however, said there was “no such thing as so-called ‘North Korean defectors’ in China”.

TJWG Legal Analyst Ethan Hee-Seok Shin, estimates over a thousand North Korean defectors are currently being held in Chinese detention centres.

“The international silence shrouding the human rights atrocities against the North Korean people must stop,” Mr Hee-Seok Shin said in a statement provided to news.com.au.

“With the Assembly of States Parties underway, we urge the UK and US governments to condemn and take actions against China’s recent forcible repatriation to prevent many more North Koreans vanishing into the abyss on their forced return to their homeland. We estimate that at least 1,100 more North Koreans are estimated to be held in Chinese detention centres.

Catriona Murdoch, British Barrister and Partner at Global Rights Compliance described the political climate in North Korea as “dystopic” and called for more global attention as recent humanitarian crises in Gaza and Ukraine capture the public’s eye.

“Crimes of enforced disappearance torment and plague the families left behind. The utter anguish of a life trapped in a Chinese detention centre faced with a forcible repatriation to the dystopic North Korea where they will most likely endure a barbaric fate as punishment for their escape,” Ms Murdoch said.

“With the international gaze fixed on finding those kidnapped in Gaza, or forcibly transferred into Russia, once again the systematic human rights abuses and international crimes occurring inside North Korea continue unabated and unacknowledged.

“The time has come to speak out, search for the missing, prevent further disappearances and rigorously pursue accountability for those perpetrating such crimes.”