12/09/2005

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Below is an excerpt of an article from The Associated Press:

The U.S. envoy for human rights in North Korea on Friday urged China to improve its treatment of North Korean defectors and expressed hope the United States could also become an accessible haven for some refugees.

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At a Seoul conference on human rights in the North, activists repeated calls on China not to send North Korean defectors back to their communist homeland, where they can face harsh punishment. They also pressed the United States to accept refugees under a U.S. law passed last year on North Korea's human rights that created Lefkowitz's position.

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Michael Horowitz, senior adviser to the Washington-based Hudson Institute, said the U.S. has to push China to change its stance on defectors by threatening sanctions.

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As a key ideological ally of the North, China views North Korean defectors as "economic migrants," not refugees, and is obligated to send them back under a bilateral treaty. Activist say China repatriates up to 400 defectors to the North every week.

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Joel Charny, vice president of Washington-based Refugees International, said China is the key to resolving the issue of defectors but said no solution will be possible unless China changes its policy - something critics expect is unlikely to happen in the near future.

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Still, he said tough measures - like sanctions and campaigns to either boycott or switch the venue of 2008 Beijing Olympics - would grab Chinese attention but also backfire.

"If China retaliated with sanctions, for example by stopping to purchase U.S. Treasury debts, the U.S. economy would be in huge trouble very quickly," Charny said.