JAPAN: Refugees from North Korea a Humanitarian, Political Test

By Suvendrini Kakuchi Reprint | | Print |

Suvendrini Kakuchi

TOKYO, Jan 29 2003 (IPS) - The growing number of North Koreans fleeing to China and South Korea is raising concern here in Japan, which is also a neighbour and thus a major destination for these refugees – and those expected to escape in case of conflict or major crisis there.

It is not only a humanitarian test for Japan, but a political one as well.

Japan’s image is still smarting from the damage from an international and domestic uproar when in July last year, its consulate in Beijing was accused of assisting the Chinese police in forcibly removing North Koreans who had sought asylum in the premises.

Japan has been accepting some North Korean refugees, but how it handles an early test – the return of Japanese spouses of North Koreans, including the first who returned to Japan Wednesday – will say a lot about the country’s policy on the matter.

The 64-year-old woman, the spouse of a North Korean national said to be a political prisoner, had crossed into the Chinese border in late November with the help of a support group. She was in Chinese custody for two weeks this month, after officials arrested a group of people helping North Korean asylum seekers.

The woman, whose identity was withheld for security reasons, left Japan under a so-called "repatriation" programme between in 1959 with her ethnic Korean husband. During the span of the programme, from 1959 to 1984, 93,000 pro-Pyongyang Koreans and their Japanese spouses and children went to North Korea.

The Japanese Red Cross estimates there are 6,800 Japanese spouses and their children among this group. Their return together with their families – estimated to be around 100,000 – is a daunting prospect for a country whose record for accepting refugees pales in comparison to other countries and has no clear immigration or rehabilitation programme for them, not to mention the returning Japanese from North Korea

According to Professor Haruhisa Ogawa, a North Korean expert and human rights advocate, Japan also faces the bigger issue of developing a policy and programme for the North Koreans accompanying the returning Japanese.

Beyond, that, there is the issue of how to deal with the refugees that try to reach Japan in the future, for instance if the North Korean government collapses.

"The way Japan handles this situation is crucial for its international image," Ogawa explains.

Reports of North Korean refugees crossing the border to China have been going on for years. But this month’s failed escape attempt from China and rising tensions after Pyongyang admitted a secret nuclear programme have renewed debate about rises in refugee departures in the future. In January, China foiled the defection of 60 North Korean refugees hoping to reach South Korea and Japan by boat. Ten are said to have been forcibly repatriated to North Korea.

Defectors have said that refugees, desperately escaping hunger and famine at home, are sent home to North Korea to face detention in labour camps and even the death penalty.

More than 1,000 defectors entered South Korea through third countries last year. Twenty-eight North Korean asylum seekers flew into Seoul on Monday, the first batch to arrive this year.

Beijing has already reported that 10,000 North Koreans defected to China in 2000, while non-governmental organisations put the number at 30,000.

"If refugees burst out of North Korea in earnest, the number is expected to top at least 300,000, " says Hiroshi Kato, secretary general of Tokyo-based Life Funds for North Korean Refugees, now at the forefront to lobby for better care and policy for the refugees.

But there are signs that Japanese officials are trying to work out a new policy.

During questioning in the Diet or parliament on Monday, the Foreign Ministry acknowledged for the first time that Japan has placed under protective custody dozens of people who fled North Korea, including Japanese spouses of Koreans and former Korean residents of Japan.

Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Shinzo Abe also suggested that the government is working on a new law to support Japanese and others fleeing North Korea.

"Generally speaking, we must seriously consider the matter, taking into consideration comprehensively the factors such as the safety of the individuals involved and the humanitarian aspect,” the government spokesman said.

For starters, Foreign Ministry Yoriko Kawaguchi said the Japanese spouses who have escaped from North Korea would be treated the same way Japanese nationals overseas are protected.

Mitoji Yamanaka, director general of the Asian and Oceania affairs bureau of the Foreign Ministry, told a House of Representatives budget committee session that there have been ”dozens” of cases similar to the refugee influx in China, which included Japapese spouses.

Yamanaka added that there have been reports of cases in which children of Japanese spouses of North Koreans were secretly brought to Japan last summer. This is said to have happened with the quiet help of the Chinese government, which has an agreement with Pyongyang to return refugees.

To many, these cases show continued, if not rising, pressure from within North Korea to escape famine and economic hardship – some 2 million are estimated to have died from famine since 1995.

Some have expressed fears of military action – though denied by the United States – after Pyongyang admitted to undertaking a nuclear enrichment programme in violation of several international agreements, including those with the United States.

Looking back, Japan has not had the best record in accepting refugees or asylum seekers.

In 2001, Japan accepted only 26 refugees out of 360 applications. In comparison, the United States received 28,000 and Germany registered 22,720 refugees for the same year.

Following the July incident in the Japanese consulate in China, Japan decided in August to apply the same policy that applied to Indochinese refugees settling in Japan decades ago, to those eligible for refugee status under the U.N. convention.