China retrieved corpses of 56 N. Korean defectors shot dead: report

By Hwang Doo-hyong
WASHINGTON, Sept. 13 (Yonhap) -- China retrieved a few years ago the corpses of
56 North Koreans floating in a border river after they were apparently shot dead
by North Korean soldiers while trying to defect, a report said Sunday.
"An official notice issued by police in the border town of Baishan in Jilin
province describes how 53 corpses were discovered by local people on the morning
of October 3, 2003, followed by three more at 5 a.m. the following day," said the
report, which appeared on the Web site "North Korea Economy Watch," specializing
in information on the North Korean economy.
Citing the official document issued by the Badaogou Police Station in Baishan, a
town in Changbai Korean Autonomous County, which borders North Korea, the report
said, "An examination found that the dead were all citizens of the Democratic
People's Republic of Korea." DPRK is North Korea's official name.
China, North Korea's staunchest communist ally, sees North Korean defectors as
economic migrants rather than refugees, and deports them under a secret agreement
with North Korea so they could face persecution back home.
Reports said that hundreds of thousands of North Korean defectors are hiding in
China.
Most North Korean defectors cross the border with China to seek shelter, mostly in
South Korea, which has received nearly 20,000 North Korean defectors since the end
of the 1950-53 Korean War.
The U.S. has taken in about 70 North Korean refugees since the North Korean Human
Rights Act was enacted years ago to help promote democracy in North Korea.
The Chinese police document dated October 7, 2003, said that "Postmortems showed
that the 56 bodies had all been shot. The evidence suggests that they had been
shot by Korean armed border guards when attempting to cross illicitly into China."

The dead consisted of 36 males and 20 females, including five boys and two girls,
the report said, adding, "The bodies were cremated locally on October 6, and
township officials are awaiting instructions from higher authority on what to do
with the ashes and with possessions found on the bodies."
U.S. and international human right organizations have urged the U.S. to persuade
China to ensure that the return of any migrants pursuant to any bilateral
agreement does not violate China's obligations under various human rights
conventions to which China is a signatory.
China has been under fire for its failure to allow access to North Korean refugees
seeking asylum abroad by the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees.
In an annual human rights report issued in February, the U.S. State Department
expressed concerns about the human trafficking and repatriation of North Korean
refugees.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton triggered controversy in February when she
said that human rights violations should not serve as a hurdle to improvements in
relations with China.
The remarks spawned concerns that the Barack Obama administration may follow his
predecessor, George W. Bush, in circumventing the sensitive rights issue in order
not to provoke China, which plays a key role in the six-party talks on ending
North Korea's nuclear ambitions.
hdh@yna.co.kr
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