U.S. Softens ‘Common’ Refugee Stance

Six defectors from North Korea arrived in Los Angeles via a country in Southeast Asia by air on the night of May 5, a diplomatic source in Washington said on May 6. The Associated Press (AP) also reported that Sam Brownback, the senior senator from Kansas who led the North Korean Human Rights Act, confirmed the above.

The entry of these six defectors is the first time North Korean defectors have been granted the statute of “refugees” in accordance with the North Korean Human Rights Act passed in October 2004.

They are not from high-ranking officials in North Korea and are known to be “common refugees” who don’t hold a wide range of confidential information such as weapons of mass destruction (WMD), currency-counterfeiting allegations, and drug trade information.

Senator Brownback said, “Given that the defectors arrived in the U.S., it vividly proves the North Korean Human Rights Act is taking effect eventually,”

The U.S. dispatched government officials to Southeast Asia directly and confirmed what the defectors had done after leaving the North. It adopted the measures in which it granted them the possible statue of allowing them to stay in the U.S. Out of six defectors, four women are known to have endured a series of extreme peril and “breaches of human rights” in terms of being snared by human traffickers, kidnapped, and thrown into prison,”

One activist fighting for human rights in North Korea said, “The U.S. has set its policy accepting defectors who suffer from a dire situation based on humanitarian common sense.

Pastor Cheon Ki-won, a head of Durihana, a South Korean missionary group, who has helped those defectors to reach the U.S. said in a phone interview with this paper, “There are more defectors under investigation of the U.S. Embassy in a third country. In addition, there are additional defectors who can be allowed to enter the U.S,” Antonio Guterres, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said, “Defectors who entered the U.S. this time will be categorized into the ‘first group,’”

Granting “common refugees” refugee’s status means that the Bush government will deal with North Korean human rights by “actions rather than words.” It also suggests that the U.S. will intensify its pressure on the Kim Jong Il regime with blocking funds through financial sanctions.

Some observers said, “This is a sign that the Bush government is making changes from resuming the six-way talks to taking the human rights issue,”

One official at the Korean government once made a careful report saying, “The U.S. government seems to have given up a hope to resolve the nuclear issue on North Korea through negotiation.”

The drastic change of policy by US may cause a burden to China. Last month, during the U.S.-China Summit, President Bush officially raised the issue that a defector woman was deported to North Korea. His official remark gives the first hint of pressing China.

However, how long North defectors continue to go to the U.S. is not certain, because it is tough for all the defectors to pass the refugee requirements even if defectors will flock to U.S. Embassy in a third country.