Korean Job Discussion Forums

[GaryCooper]

From an e-mail from Norbert Vollertsen. Check out those two links.
-- GaryCooper

Background Facts:
The International Relations Committee at the US Congress recently (Tuesday, Oct. 23?) passed a resolution demanding a halt on the Chinese government�s forced repatriation of North Korean asylum seekers in China.

CDNK(Committee for Democratization of North Korea) is led by Hwang Jang-Yop, the highest-ranking former North Korean in exile and Kang Chol-Hwan, the author of The Aquariums of Pyongyang and the former North Korean refugee who met President Bush at the White House a few years ago.

[Emergency Statement]

Save Lee Sang-Hyuk�s Life and Give him the Freedom!

At or about 9 AM, October 24, 2007, Mr. Lee Sang-Hyuk, age 33, and his colleague were arrested by the Chinese Border Police at their hide-out in Yanji, Jilin Province, China.

Mr. Lee, a North Korean national, had been arrested before inside North Korea while he was using the cell phone, a serious crime there. He had previously reported the bleak reality of that country�s human rights situation to advocacy groups in the South. After the arrest, he managed to escape the detention facility with another colleague of his and came to China to hide themselves at a house in Yanji, where they were apprehended by the raiding Chinese Border Police.

A source inside Chinese PSB said �The arrest was made as the result of tracking down a phone number provided by the DPRK (North Korea), which was believed to be the phone of those connected to Lee. At the time of Lee�s original capture at Hyesan, North Korea, his cell phone and the little notebook containing phone numbers had also been confiscated.� This remark leads us to believe that North Korea had requested Chinese authorities for Lee�s arrest and repatriation.

The Daily NK, an internet press specializing in North Korea, made Lee�s arrest public for the first time

http://www.dailynk.com/english/read.php?cataId=nk00100&num=2833

According to its report, �Mr. Lee was suspected of touching base with his relatives in South Korea and leaking confidential information about North Korea to the outside.�

China has deemed the forcible repatriation of North Korean escapees apprehended on their soil mandatory obligation under the law, and it will be a matter of time that Mr. Lee ends up in North Korea.

Only horrendous tortures and a summary execution await such repatriates who are involved with political incidents as Mr. Lee. At the execution site, they are often tied to the stake by a metal wire piercing through their noses and their feet are impaled to the ground by spikes. Then, fellow inmates at the Political Prison (Gulag) would stone them to the death. Being shot to death would be a generous treatment. Please read the recent book by a former inmate:

http://english.chosun.com/w21data/html/news/200710/200710250019.html

Mr. Lee would die once he is sent to North Korea. It is urgent that we stop his repatriation.

We solemnly demand the government of China to allow the political asylum to Mr. Lee and his colleague currently in China�s custody. As political asylees, they are entitled to protection accorded them under the international human rights conventions.

We earnestly entreat the government of South Korea. The lives of two people who escaped to China for freedom are hanging by a thread. It is imperative that Korean government quickly engage in consultation with Chinese government and bring Mr. Lee and his colleague to the freedom in South Korea if they so wish.

We also appeal to the US Congress and its government that are diligently advocating the human rights of North Korean escapees. Mr. Lee and his colleague are not ordinary escapees, but political asylees.

Secretary Ban Ki-Moon of UN, a shield for the world�s human rights! Please give your ear to the cries of all North Korean escapees who are praying out loud for these two people! We implore you to put to work all the available resources at the United Nations and save Mr. Lee and his colleague.

The world is listening and the conscientious press of this world is watching the fate of these two souls.

We respectfully submit this request in the name of ten thousand former North Korean refugees now settled in South Korea.

October 26, 2007-10-27
Committee for Democratization of North Korea