A man in his 30s who claims to be a North Korean defector has been staying at a protection facility in South Korea’s consulate general in Shanghai for more than a year, looking forward to being sent to South Korea.

China’s public security authorities have refused to give him a permission to leave the country, claiming that he is an ethnic Korean with Chinese nationality. The man, however, is begging to be sent to the South, saying that though he was born in China, he is a North Korean refugee who lived in the North for a long time with his parents before crossing the border back to China at risk to his life.

All defectors who stayed at South Korean diplomatic missions in Beijing, Shenyang and elsewhere in China arrived in South Korea in May. The man in Shanghai, however, remains in the dark about his fate though he has lived at a South Korean mission for a long time along with other defectors.

He is known to have been born in northeastern China in the late 1970s. His parents or grandparents moved from the Korean Peninsula to Manchuria. By this point, he was an ethnic Korean with Chinese nationality.

The man, however, moved to North Korea and became a national after his family took him to the North. Until Pyongyang-Beijing ties soured and the North Korean economy collapsed in the 1990s, official immigration procedures between the two countries were meaningless.

As many border area residents would say, they were able to cross the border as if visiting a neighborhood. Thus many ethnic Koreans who lived in northeastern China went to the North, which was relatively better off than China.

The situation was reversed, however, as China became increasingly developed after opening up in 1978 while the situation in the North worsenened. Several of the man’s relatives returned to China and recovered their Chinese nationality presumably in the 1990s, when the North was going through severe economic hardship.

The man stayed in the North until he escaped and entered a South Korean diplomatic mission in China for defection.

Chinese authorities claim that he is a Chinese national based on his family registration records. Though his brother with Chinese nationality is helping him, he is having difficulties proving his nationality.

“His story testifies to the heart-breaking modern history of the Korean people, who were forced to migrate to survive,” a source said.

Reportedly, Seoul and Beijing have continued negotiating over what to do with him but have made little progress. The South’s consulate general in Shanghai refused to speak to The Dong-A Ilbo, saying it would decline comment on any defector.

mungchii@donga.com