In 2017, life is harder than ever for North Korean defectors.
Recently-escaped refugees almost always end up in China’s rural towns, scraping by as day-laborers, domestic servants, or – in cases of human trafficking – sex workers. China’s brutal repatriation policy has killed an untold number of North Koreans. Usually, refugees have two options for escaping to free countries: they can find a profit-driven broker, or they can locate a humanitarian NGO. Brokers are notorious for charging exorbitant fees. NGOs are not.
Early this year, however, the NGO route became less viable.
According to Reverend Tim Peters of Helping Hands Korea, China deported approximately 62 Christian missionaries between December of 2016 and April 2017. Almost all of these activists were assisting North Koreans. Their abrupt departure has left defectors homeless, often without employment, living on subsistence budgets and fearing every knock on their doors.
“It’s a series of raids,” Peters explained outside a weekly prayer meeting. “This is a policy decision by China to root out them out. It’s a form of revenge for THAAD deployment…that’s how I interpret it.”
Here, Peters refers to the United States’ Terminal High Altitude Arial Defense system, or THAAD. The anti-ballistic missile technology was developed to protect South Korea and Japan from a potential North Korean attack. China, however, perceives the installation as an invasive radar tool that threatens their regional power. Beijing responded earlier this year by placing unofficial sanctions against Lotte Group, the South Korean corporation that owned the golf course THAAD is built on.
Several activists volunteering for Helping Hands Korea believe the deportation of missionaries, and therefore destabilization of defectors, is another method of retaliation.
“Suddenly these blankets of protection have been ripped away,” Tim Peters said. “This left a large number of [refugees] in real distress and vulnerability.”
The streets of rural China are a dangerous place for a North Korean. Even if they manage to find work, their illegal status makes them easy targets for exploitation. It’s common for employers to steal wages, request huge ‘deposits’ for jobs, or even to demand sexual favors. If these demands aren’t satisfied, they threaten to turn the refugee in.
Punishments in the DPRK exist on a gradient. While it may be possible to sneak by with the “I was visiting relatives in China” excuse, contact with a Christian missionary is a serious crime. If one is discovered to have lived with a Christian, they are at risk of being whisked into a concentration camp or even killed.
Nevertheless, China has persisted with its policy of repatriating defectors.
Under conditions of anonymity, a former underground railroad worker said: “Because of the increased mainstreaming of the North Korea issue, capacity has definitely gone up. But the Sino-North Korean border security has also gone up…the risk factor for people on the China-side has increased, too. Overall, the flow to SK has slowed considerably since Kim Jong-un came to power.”
Tim Peters reports that after the deportations, this trend reversed. His organization has received a flood of distress calls. “Everybody is scrambling at every level – people in the field, people doing logistical support…there are still quite a number of unprotected refugees waiting for evacuation.”
Whether or not the railroad will be able to meet demand is still unclear. In the meantime, North Koreans hiding in China remain one of the world’s most underserved refugee populations.