China repatriations of N. Koreans may be crimes against humanity, report says
SEOUL, March 5 (UPI) — A South Korea-based human rights organization said Thursday it has identified specific Chinese public security officials and command structures allegedly involved in the systematic forced repatriation of North Korean escapees — a practice it argues could amount to crimes against humanity under international law.
The findings were presented at a seminar in Seoul hosted by the Database Center for North Korean Human Rights, or NKDB, which released a new report examining how Chinese authorities detain and return North Koreans who cross the border seeking refuge.
The event brought together international human rights experts and officials such as former South Korean ambassador for North Korean human rights Lee Shin-wha, and included video messages from U.N. Special Rapporteur on North Korean human rights Elizabeth Salmón and U.S. State Department official Julie Turner.
The report marks a shift from documenting abuses against North Korean escapees to identifying operational responsibility within Chinese security institutions, Donghwi Shin, a human rights analyst at NKDB and one of the report’s authors, said at the seminar.
“Ultimately, the forced repatriation of North Korean defectors can be understood as a structural processing system,” he said. “It is not a simple act of administrative enforcement.”
Human rights groups have long accused Beijing of violating the principle of non-refoulement, a core rule of international refugee law barring the return of people to countries where they face persecution.
China maintains that North Koreans who cross its border illegally are economic migrants rather than refugees and routinely returns them under bilateral border agreements with Pyongyang, despite being a party to the U.N. Refugee Convention and the Convention Against Torture.
Human Rights Watch said in an October 2025 report that Chinese authorities have forcibly returned at least 406 North Koreans since 2024, warning that those repatriated face a high risk of torture, imprisonment and other abuses upon return.
NKDB’s report, The Machinery Behind the Forced Repatriation of North Koreans in China, analyzes how those returns are carried out through what researchers describe as an organized cross-border system involving multiple government agencies.
Drawing on more than two decades of documentation, the study examines 8,245 recorded cases of forced repatriation and testimonies from 96 survivors who were returned to North Korea after being detained in China.
Researchers said the process typically involves Chinese public security organs arresting North Korean escapees, detaining them in border regions such as Liaoning and Jilin provinces, and transferring them to North Korean authorities at designated crossing points.
The report also includes survivor testimony describing what happens after repatriation.
At the seminar Thursday, one North Korean escapee shared the experience of being repatriated from China in 2014, detailing a brutal 19-month period of processing, interrogation and eventual detention at a forced labor camp in Ryanggang Province near the Chinese border.
The escapee, whose identity was withheld for safety reasons, described routine beatings, torture, malnutrition and humiliation, including a public trial at a marketplace where crowds spat, cursed and threw stones.
“At the prison camp we were forced to work from 4:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. without rest,” the escapee said. “We ate rats and maggots just to stay alive, the only source of protein we could have.”
Ultimately, the escapee’s parents sold their house to pay a bribe that allowed for an eventual release and relocation to South Korea.
However, the experience left lasting scars, including damaged legs and psychological trauma that requires ongoing therapy and medication.
“My only wish is to have one night of deep, peaceful sleep,” the escapee said. “We demand that the facts of our suffering be brought before international courts.”
Such testimony reinforces the legal arguments presented in the report.
Under Article 7 of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, deportation or forcible transfer carried out as part of a widespread or systematic attack against civilians can constitute a crime against humanity.
The report argues that repeated forced repatriations may meet that threshold if officials knowingly participate in returning individuals to a system where such abuses are foreseeable.
Previous investigations by U.N. bodies and human rights organizations have documented harsh treatment of repatriated North Koreans, including detention, interrogation and abuse inside the country’s prison and labor camp system.
NKDB researchers said the findings raise questions about accountability not only for abuses carried out inside North Korea but also for officials involved in facilitating forced returns.
The organization called on U.N. member states and governments with sanctions authorities to examine the findings and consider possible accountability measures.
Speakers at the seminar said the research should serve as a foundation for policy action.
“The challenge now is translating this research into actual policy change,” former ambassador Lee said. “We must confront the structural causes of repeated forced repatriations in China with clarity.”
