China cracks down on North Koreans fleeing Kim regime

China, under Xi Jinping’s communist regime, has intensified repression against North Korean citizens who use its territory to try to escape Kim Jong-un’s brutal dictatorship.

An agency report Reuters showed that the Chinese dictatorship has used a series of advanced surveillance measures to identify and deport North Koreans who are trying to flee Pyongyang’s oppressive regime.

China has reportedly implemented new surveillance measures and mass deportations along its border with North Korea. Since the Covid-19 pandemic, Beijing has been creating more deportation centers, investing in the installation of hundreds of smart facial recognition cameras and increasing maritime patrols. These efforts, widely documented in government reports and records, cited by Reutershas made fleeing North Koreans through China a virtually impossible task, as they are now being easily captured by communist authorities and subsequently sent back to Kim Jong-un’s authoritarian regime.

According to North Koreans who managed to leave Kim’s dictatorship through China, and human rights activists interviewed by ReutersChinese authorities now also closely monitor the social networks of those who leave North Korea to go to the country, and collect information such as fingerprints and voice, all to prevent them from using Chinese territory as a “bridge” to escape definitively of the Pyongyang regime.

Stephen Kim, described by Reuters as a missionary who helps many North Koreans flee their home country, said that “more than 90% of North Koreans currently in China have already registered their personal and biometric data with the police.” The measures facilitate the detection of North Koreans moving through Chinese territory.

China’s growing repression has created an environment of fear for those trying to escape Pyongyang across the country. North Koreans trying to leave Kim’s regime for China report that using public transportation has become risky given extensive monitoring by surveillance cameras.

Although the Chinese regime’s official documents do not explicitly mention North Koreans as the main target of repression, China’s heightened surveillance focuses on areas close to North Korea. Beijing denies the existence of North Koreans trying to escape Pyongyang through its territory. Those who desperately enter the country are treated as illegal immigrants and immediately deported, so there is no exact statistics on how many there are.

The Chinese regime’s increased repression against North Koreans is directly linked to its geopolitical interests. Human rights groups point out that China wants to control the migratory flow at the border to avoid the destabilization of North Korea, which could happen if the North Koreans realize that there is an “easier” way to leave the country and, thus, prevent the Pyongyang regime from collapsing, which could result in the reunification of the peninsula under the leadership of South Korea, a strong ally of the United States.

HAS ReutersRoberta Cohen, a human rights expert, notes: “China fears that if many North Koreans find refuge on its territory, others will follow suit, destabilizing North Korea and strengthening American influence in the region.”

In recent years, the number of North Korean immigrants arriving in South Korea has decreased significantly, a direct result of the crackdown on the Sino-North Korean border. According to the Transitional Justice Working Group (TJWG), a human rights organization based in Seoul, the risk of capture by border authorities between Beijing and Pyongyang has increased considerably in recent years. 70% of North Koreans who tried to escape through China to reach South Korea in the past two years were arrested by police, compared with 20% before the heightened surveillance measures. According to ReutersChina would have deported thousands of North Koreans between August 2023 and July 2024.

The deportation of North Koreans who try to escape is seen as a certain return to prison, torture or even death, as Kim Jong-un’s dictatorship classifies their escape from the country as an “act of treason”. According to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, those who are repatriated face serious rights abuses, including being sent to labor camps and prisons.

“No one should be returned to a country where they would face the risk of torture, cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment and other irreparable harm, including the use of the death penalty and enforced disappearance,” UN experts said.

“Individuals (who flee) are labeled as ‘criminals’ by (North Korean) authorities if they commit ‘illegal border crossing’ and as ‘traitors’ if authorities find any connection that suggests an ‘intent to escape to the Republic. of (South) Korea’. If they are labeled as ‘traitors’, they receive severe punishments, including imprisonment without due process, being subject to forced disappearance and even execution,” the experts added.