Haelong: After fleeing famine in North Korea, Kim Cheol is okay Her family says she was held captive in China for decades – until she was deported back to her repressive homeland in a bid for freedom.
He is one of hundreds North Korean People deported by China in recent months say they face imprisonment, torture and even execution when they return home, according to rights groups.
Following Kim Cheol Ok’s disappearance last year, his family made the rare and risky decision to publicize his case.
In a frantic farewell call, he “said he would be flown back to North Korea in two hours, and hung up the phone,” his sister Kim Kyu-lee told AFP.
Since then neither he nor any other relative has been able to contact him.
Thousands of North Koreans are believed to live illegally in China’s northeastern border areas.
Beijing engages them sporadically, but sent Stopped while the border was closed during the pandemic.
Pyongyang’s views are rejected Limit Crossing is considered a serious offense and violators are believed to be punished severely.
“Prison in North Korea is a dangerous place,” said Kim Kyu-lee, who lives in London.
“A lot of people die.”
Neither China nor North Korea have officially acknowledged Kim Cheol Ok’s case.
But AFP confirmed their story through interviews with Kim Kyu-lee, a lawyer who campaigns for the deportees, and a source in China with knowledge of the case who spoke anonymously out of fear of official reprisals.
– ‘severe punishment’ –
Following the reopening of the Chinese-North Korean border, an AFP team traveled to the area.
Chinese border police blocked journalists from visiting four official crossing points, saying they needed special permits.
These include the city of Nanping, located opposite the North Korean city of Musan, where Kim Cheol Ok is believed to have been repatriated.
But journalists observed points along the border, where North Korean guards stood sentry in watchtowers and behind lines of sharpened sticks.
They saw North Koreans farming or cutting wood. A city seemed completely empty, except for the mournful music echoing from the dilapidated residential blocks.
Public notices from the Chinese side warned against communicating with North Koreans and vowed to impose “severe punishment” for harboring illegal immigrants or smuggling.
Across the border, a giant North Korean propaganda sign hovered over a settlement: “My country is the best!”
– doomed escape –
Kim Cheol Ok, who is about 40, moved to China in the 1990s as North Korea faced severe food shortages, Kim Kyu-lee said.
She was sold into marriage with an older Chinese man, by whom she had a daughter and spent decades in legal entanglement.
Convinced she needed legal status and health care after battling COVID-19 last year, she decided to try to flee China.
Kim Kyu-lee said, “She was so sick that she couldn’t even recognize (me).”
“He suddenly asked me to get him out of China,” he said. “So I told him to wait and I’ll do anything.”
Last April, Kim Kyu-lee hired a broker to help Kim Cheol Ok arrange a 2,500-mile (4,000-kilometer) trip to Vietnam.
“Prison is a dangerous place” in North Korea, says Kim Kyu-lee, whose sister disappeared while attempting to reunite with her family.
She hoped her sister would be able to travel to South Korea, which offers citizenship to North Koreans. From there, Kim Cheol Ok will join them in Britain.
But no reunion ever took place.
“Usually, when they enter (Vietnam), we get a call from the broker within a week that they have arrived safely,” Kim Kyu-lee said.
“But after 10 days, there was no news.”
– Two hours notice –
Kim Kyu-li and an unnamed source in China said Chinese police had detained Kim Cheol Ok and two other North Koreans within hours of leaving their home.
He spent several months in a high-security detention center outside a village near the city of Baishan in Jilin province.
His family says they were not told whether he was criminally charged, prosecuted or sentenced.
They were allowed to bring clothes and money to the center, but they could not see Kim Cheol Ok.
Then, in October, he asked for a final phone call from a prison officer, Kim Kyu-lee said.
He told his family that he was being deported back to North Korea two hours later and was never heard from again.
According to the Transitional Justice Working Group (TJWG) in South Korea, Kim Cheol Ok was one of approximately 600 North Koreans deported from China that month.
The group estimated that as of December an additional 1,100 people were being held for repatriation.
AFP was unable to independently verify the figures. Calls to the facility identified by Kim Cheol Ok’s family were not answered and officials ordered journalists out of the surrounding area.
– ‘shoot on sight’ –
Thousands of North Koreans have entered China in recent decades in search of a better life.
Beijing views them as illegal economic migrants – forcing many to cross to third countries to get to South Korea.
But arrivals have declined since North Korean leader Kim Jong Un came to power a decade ago.
During the pandemic, Pyongyang stepped up border security and implemented a “shoot at sight” policy, according to Seoul-based expert outlet NK News.
Only 196 North Koreans crossed into the South last year, according to Seoul’s Unification Ministry, down from a high of about 3,000 in 2009.
Sokil Park, the South Korean director of the rights group Liberty in North Korea, said migration dropped to “almost zero” after Covid controls were imposed in 2020.
Those who left China were likely already there before the pandemic, he said, adding that more deportations were expected.
– ‘Hope he’s alive’ –
China and North Korea are longtime allies and have stepped up diplomacy in recent months.
Beijing’s Foreign Ministry said it “properly handles those who immigrate to China illegally for economic reasons”.
Pyongyang’s embassy in China did not respond to a request for comment.
In London, Kim Kyu-lee was concerned over her sister’s fate.
“I’m fighting with hope that he’s still alive,” she said.
“Just as she survived in China at a young age, I hope she will survive (in North Korea) too.”
He is one of hundreds North Korean People deported by China in recent months say they face imprisonment, torture and even execution when they return home, according to rights groups.
Following Kim Cheol Ok’s disappearance last year, his family made the rare and risky decision to publicize his case.
In a frantic farewell call, he “said he would be flown back to North Korea in two hours, and hung up the phone,” his sister Kim Kyu-lee told AFP.
Since then neither he nor any other relative has been able to contact him.
Thousands of North Koreans are believed to live illegally in China’s northeastern border areas.
Beijing engages them sporadically, but sent Stopped while the border was closed during the pandemic.
Pyongyang’s views are rejected Limit Crossing is considered a serious offense and violators are believed to be punished severely.
“Prison in North Korea is a dangerous place,” said Kim Kyu-lee, who lives in London.
“A lot of people die.”
Neither China nor North Korea have officially acknowledged Kim Cheol Ok’s case.
But AFP confirmed their story through interviews with Kim Kyu-lee, a lawyer who campaigns for the deportees, and a source in China with knowledge of the case who spoke anonymously out of fear of official reprisals.
– ‘severe punishment’ –
Following the reopening of the Chinese-North Korean border, an AFP team traveled to the area.
Chinese border police blocked journalists from visiting four official crossing points, saying they needed special permits.
These include the city of Nanping, located opposite the North Korean city of Musan, where Kim Cheol Ok is believed to have been repatriated.
But journalists observed points along the border, where North Korean guards stood sentry in watchtowers and behind lines of sharpened sticks.
They saw North Koreans farming or cutting wood. A city seemed completely empty, except for the mournful music echoing from the dilapidated residential blocks.
Public notices from the Chinese side warned against communicating with North Koreans and vowed to impose “severe punishment” for harboring illegal immigrants or smuggling.
Across the border, a giant North Korean propaganda sign hovered over a settlement: “My country is the best!”
– doomed escape –
Kim Cheol Ok, who is about 40, moved to China in the 1990s as North Korea faced severe food shortages, Kim Kyu-lee said.
She was sold into marriage with an older Chinese man, by whom she had a daughter and spent decades in legal entanglement.
Convinced she needed legal status and health care after battling COVID-19 last year, she decided to try to flee China.
Kim Kyu-lee said, “She was so sick that she couldn’t even recognize (me).”
“He suddenly asked me to get him out of China,” he said. “So I told him to wait and I’ll do anything.”
Last April, Kim Kyu-lee hired a broker to help Kim Cheol Ok arrange a 2,500-mile (4,000-kilometer) trip to Vietnam.
“Prison is a dangerous place” in North Korea, says Kim Kyu-lee, whose sister disappeared while attempting to reunite with her family.
She hoped her sister would be able to travel to South Korea, which offers citizenship to North Koreans. From there, Kim Cheol Ok will join them in Britain.
But no reunion ever took place.
“Usually, when they enter (Vietnam), we get a call from the broker within a week that they have arrived safely,” Kim Kyu-lee said.
“But after 10 days, there was no news.”
– Two hours notice –
Kim Kyu-li and an unnamed source in China said Chinese police had detained Kim Cheol Ok and two other North Koreans within hours of leaving their home.
He spent several months in a high-security detention center outside a village near the city of Baishan in Jilin province.
His family says they were not told whether he was criminally charged, prosecuted or sentenced.
They were allowed to bring clothes and money to the center, but they could not see Kim Cheol Ok.
Then, in October, he asked for a final phone call from a prison officer, Kim Kyu-lee said.
He told his family that he was being deported back to North Korea two hours later and was never heard from again.
According to the Transitional Justice Working Group (TJWG) in South Korea, Kim Cheol Ok was one of approximately 600 North Koreans deported from China that month.
The group estimated that as of December an additional 1,100 people were being held for repatriation.
AFP was unable to independently verify the figures. Calls to the facility identified by Kim Cheol Ok’s family were not answered and officials ordered journalists out of the surrounding area.
– ‘shoot on sight’ –
Thousands of North Koreans have entered China in recent decades in search of a better life.
Beijing views them as illegal economic migrants – forcing many to cross to third countries to get to South Korea.
But arrivals have declined since North Korean leader Kim Jong Un came to power a decade ago.
During the pandemic, Pyongyang stepped up border security and implemented a “shoot at sight” policy, according to Seoul-based expert outlet NK News.
Only 196 North Koreans crossed into the South last year, according to Seoul’s Unification Ministry, down from a high of about 3,000 in 2009.
Sokil Park, the South Korean director of the rights group Liberty in North Korea, said migration dropped to “almost zero” after Covid controls were imposed in 2020.
Those who left China were likely already there before the pandemic, he said, adding that more deportations were expected.
– ‘Hope he’s alive’ –
China and North Korea are longtime allies and have stepped up diplomacy in recent months.
Beijing’s Foreign Ministry said it “properly handles those who immigrate to China illegally for economic reasons”.
Pyongyang’s embassy in China did not respond to a request for comment.
In London, Kim Kyu-lee was concerned over her sister’s fate.
“I’m fighting with hope that he’s still alive,” she said.
“Just as she survived in China at a young age, I hope she will survive (in North Korea) too.”
