http://www.usatoday.com/usatonline/20030131/4828202s.htm
Chinese state security agents are in the midst of a harsh crackdown on North Korean refugees fleeing hunger and political repression at home. Over the past two months, more than 3,200 desperate North Koreans have been seized inside China along the wintry border with North Korea and forcibly repatriated, according to the humanitarian group Doctors Without Borders. An additional 1,300 are awaiting their forced return in two Chinese detention camps, including one near here that has its walls painted an incongruous pink. ''Almost every day, they're arresting North Koreans and sending them back to brutal persecution,'' says Kim Sang Hun, a refugee activist in Seoul. The United States says North Korea is a member of the ''axis of evil'' that must be stopped from acquiring nuclear weapons. Some U.S. officials favor ending North Korean ruler Kim Jong Il's regime. The Chinese, too, oppose nuclear proliferation on the Korean peninsula. But their overriding goal, as the refugee roundup illustrates, is preserving stability on the other side of the 878-mile border with North Korea. ''On the Korean issue, China is a status-quo power,'' says Chu Shulong of Tsinghua University in Beijing. ''China does not want to see a hostile or chaotic North Korea.'' The stepped-up policing comes amid an international crisis over North Korea's nuclear weapons program. In October, Pyongyang admitted pursuing a secret nuclear development effort, U.S. officials said. It then expelled international inspectors from its nuclear facilities and announced it was withdrawing from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. The United States has asked China to intervene to seek a peaceful end to the dispute. This week, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman called for Washington and Pyongyang to hold an ''early and direct'' dialogue. The Chinese refugee policy is guided by memories of 1989. In that year, Eastern European communist regimes began collapsing when Hungary let East German citizens escape to the West via its border with Austria. Chinese officials believe giving fleeing North Koreans a green light risks a similar fate for its neighbor, say Western diplomats and Chinese analysts. China's thirst for order above all else also derives from its own history, littered with tumultuous episodes that cost the lives of millions. Chinese leaders want to devote their energies to economic development, not be distracted by a neighboring state in turmoil. The United States and the United Nations, however, have criticized the Chinese campaign, which includes paying cash bounties to people who inform on refugees and foreign activists who aid them. About 30 miles from here in Yanji, the regional administrative center and a focus of aid efforts, an official at a Korean church that helps refugees nervously refuses to talk. ''It's just too sensitive now,'' he says. China says the North Koreans are not genuine refugees who deserve asylum, but ''economic migrants,'' which it is not obligated to accept under international law. Since China bars international organizations and humanitarian groups from this region, no one is certain how many North Koreans remain in China. Past estimates have ranged as high as 300,000. The current total is believed to be a small fraction of that amount, humanitarian activists say. China's stance, which includes allowing uniformed North Korean authorities to operate on its territory, has made it more difficult for refugees to evade detection. But it has not shut off human traffic coming across the frozen Tumen River, in some places less than 50 feet wide, locals say. The Tumen border crossing is a narrow bridge guarded on the Chinese side by a soldier toting a brown Kalashnikov rifle. Souvenir stands sell collections of North Korean stamps depicting Kim Jong Il and his father, and predecessor as ruler, Kim Il Sung. From a rooftop post, the North Korean guards on the opposite shore are clearly visible, along with a giant mural depicting Kim Il Sung surrounded by adoring children. This part of China is populated largely by ethnic Koreans, who consider people on the other side of the border kin. In the mid-1990s, as North Korea endured famine, local officials let people here give food and shelter to refugees crossing illegally. ''After all, we're all Koreans. We're the same race,'' says Xu Zhe, a Chinese citizen in line at the Tumen bus station. At that time, North Korean beggar children prowled the streets. Today, the dragnet has cleared the streets of refugees, easily identified by their slight stature and malnourished appearance. Still, one type of migrant remains in demand: young women. In Antu, about a two-hour drive away along icy mountain roads, residents say local corn and rice farmers often purchase North Korean women as their spouses. The decision often is motivated both by middle-aged male desperation and financial calculus. To marry a local woman, a man must give her family matrimonial gifts worth about 6,000 Chinese yuan or $725.A North Korean bride costs roughly half that amount, residents say. Chinese officials hope their tough refugee policy will deter more people from trying to cross the border. But with international food aid to North Korea slumping, aid workers expect the refugee tide to be undiminished. ''The outlook seems to be very grim through the winter and early months of the spring,'' says Tim Peters, 52, a Seoul-based Christian missionary from Michigan who has been active in refugee aid efforts. ''This is going to be a real bone-crushing winter in North Korea.'' xponent Koreans And Mexicans Maru rob ________________________________ You are a fluke of the universe. You have no right to be here. And whether you can hear it or not, the universe is laughing behind your back. _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
