US discusses North Korea with China, concerns about repatriation

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The senior U.S. official on North Korea discussed the country with her Chinese counterpart in Tokyo on Thursday and expressed concern about the forced repatriation of North Koreans from China, the U.S. State Department said.

The talks between Jung Pak and China’s Special Representative for Korean Peninsula Affairs Liu Xiaoming followed a visit to Beijing last month by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, the ministry said in a statement.

Pak noted North Korea’s “provocative and irresponsible rhetoric towards its neighbors” and stressed his concern about deepening military cooperation with Russia. She said Russia’s veto of a mandate extension for a U.N. panel monitoring North Korea’s sanctions would hamper efforts to implement U.N. Security Council resolutions, the statement said.

She also expressed continued US concerns over the forced repatriation of North Koreans, including asylum seekers, to the DPRK and called on Beijing to fulfill its non-refoulement obligations, the statement said, referring to North Korea by its initials of the official name.

The UN principle of non-refoulement aims to ensure that “no one shall be returned to a country where he or she will face torture, cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment and other irreparable harm.”

A South Korea-based human rights group reported in December that up to 600 North Koreans had “disappeared” after being forcibly deported by China and warned that they could face imprisonment, torture, sexual violence and execution in North Korea.

That report from the Transitional Justice Working Group came about two months after South Korea protested to China over the suspected repatriation of a large number of North Koreans who tried to flee to South Korea.

Beijing’s Foreign Ministry said in October that there were no North Korean “defectors” in China, but that North Koreans had entered the country illegally for economic reasons and that China always handled the issue according to the law.

Pak last spoke to Liu in February after an earlier meeting on February 16 between Blinken and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, in which the US side said the two “affirmed the importance of continued communication on (North Korean) issues at all levels.”

China-US relations have shown signs of improvement in recent months, with moves to restore communication channels after ties sank to their lowest levels in decades, but many points of friction remain, including China’s close ties China with Russia.

In Tokyo, Pak also discussed North Korea with South Korean and Japanese counterparts and underlined the importance of maintaining close trilateral cooperation in tackling the threat it posed, a separate US statement said.