NK defectors joining campaigns to free comrades in China

NK defectors joining campaigns to free comrades in China. February. 18, 2012 21:13. zsh75@donga.com.

Campaigns are seeking to free North Korean defectors detained in China and who face repatriation to the North. Former defectors living in South Korea have stepped forward to shape public opinion online on the matter.

Human rights organizations in South Korea have led rallies to block China from deporting defectors back to the North. People attending rallies organized by defector organizations have mostly been the same people who always show up at such rallies, including activists from humanitarian groups.

This time, however, more former defectors have appeared at such rallies, however. Members of Shelter of Saeteomin (North Korean defectors), the largest online community for former defectors in the South, assembled in front of the statue of legendary Korean Admiral Yi Sun-shin at Gwanghwamun in central Seoul Friday. They staged a rally to protest China`s planned repatriation of defectors.

This came after a defector nicknamed "So Hyang" uploaded a Web posting reading, "How can we urge the world and the South Korean government to rescue North Korean defectors if we ourselves don`t take action?"

Former defectors in the South have positively responded to the message and voluntarily joined the rally.

Members of the online community plan to continue protests to block the repatriation of defectors. Some 10 former defectors living in Gwangju held a news conference in front of the Chinese consulate there, and urged Beijing to listen to their voices and stop sending back defectors detained in China.

For former defectors living in a provincial region of South Korea and not around the capital of Seoul to stage a protest rally is considered unusual. They also staged a protest before the Chinese consulate Thursday. Ji Hyeon-ah, 33, who spearheaded the rally, was an inmate at North Korea`s notorious concentration camp Jeungsan Correctional House. She was caught in China by police there and repatriated to the North.

New methods to seek the release of defectors have also been tried. People for a Unified Korea Era, a civic group headed by a former defector that supports reunification of the peninsula, posted an appeal to release defectors in English, Japanese and Chinese on its website, and used Twitter, Facebook, email and fax to send the appeal throughout the world.

Other human rights organizations have also begun rallies and signature collection campaigns to block China from repatriating defectors. Mounting voices in the Internet are also demanding the release of defectors detained in China.

Ten North Korean human rights organizations held a joint news conference in central Seoul Friday, declaring the launch of a signature collection campaign to block the repatriation of defectors. They started the campaign Friday to collect signatures from people at Gwanghwamun subway station, and plan to submit the list of cosigners to the South Korean Foreign Affairs and Trade Ministry, the Chinese Embassy in Seoul, and the U.N. to urge their assistance.

The South Korean branch of Amnesty International has also begun an online appeals campaign to urge Chinese President Hu Jintao to halt deportation of defectors, and has collected thousands of signatures.

Campaigns have also begun to seek the release of detained defectors in China on Agora, a chat room in the leading South Korean Web portal site Daum, and Change, a world-renowned site for signature collection campaigns. Signatures from thousands of people have been collected.

North Korea RT, a site on North Korean affairs, has more than 500 postings by Web users expressing wishes on the safe return of defectors.

Meanwhile, the National Human Rights Commission Friday sent a letter signed by its chairman Hyun Byung-chul urging U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to block the repatriation of North Korean defectors. The commission urged the world body to make every effort to prevent the repatriation of the defectors, saying they risked their lives to escape North Korea.