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N Korea punishes 'escapees'
05/03/2007 18:11 - (SA)
Seoul - North Korea has increased the penalties for its citizens caught trying to flee the country and reserves some of its harshest punishment for those who work with Christian missionaries, said a human rights group on Tuesday.
Human Rights Watch said: "In an ominous hardening of policy, North Korea appears to be punishing its citizens with longer sentences in abusive prisons if they are caught crossing the border to China or have been forcibly repatriated by Beijing."
In a report based on interviews with North Korean defectors, the group said that impoverished North Korea announced in late 2004 a new policy of punishing border-crossers with up to five years in prison, where they then face beatings, forced labour and starvation.
It said those arrested between 2000 and early 2004 used to face questioning and were punished by a few months in a prison or a re-education camp.
The longer the sentence, the greater the chance the prisoner would die in North Korea's brutal jails, said the report.
North Korea hardened its policy after South Korea airlifted 468 North Korean refugees from Vietnam for resettlement within its borders, it added.
'Avoiding starvation'
Sophie Richardson, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch, said: "North Koreans are crossing into China to avoid starvation since their government is either unwilling or unable to feed them."
Various rights groups have said hundreds of thousands of North Koreans have crossed into neighbouring China, where they face fines, deportation or exploitation by unscrupulous employers.
Human Rights Watch said Stalinist North Korea reserved some of its harshest penalties for those who had contact with Christian missionaries or converted to the religion.
Several South Korean Christian groups try to help North Koreans flee the country.
More than 10 000 North Korean refugees have resettled in South Korea, where they are almost always given citizenship.
'A violation of human rights'
The group said punishing people for trying to leave the country was a violation of human rights.
It called on Pyongyang, which bristles at any criticism of its rights record, to allow international monitors into the country.
"The majority of North Koreans who cross the border to China do so simply to survive," it said.
- Reuters
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