Mick Hartley

As North Korea's relations with China improve, the prospects for North Korean defectors in China are getting worse:

Once strained, the relationship between North Korea and China appears to be on the mend again as the two countries mark the “year of North Korea-China friendship” to celebrate 75 years of diplomatic relations. This situation is leading to fears among North Korean defectors in China, many of whom worry that North Korea and China may improve cooperation on repatriating defectors as the countries grow closer.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, a source in China told Daily NK recently that defectors in China “feel more frightened and insecure than ever about being repatriated because the closer North Korea and China are, the greater the risk that defectors will be repatriated.”

He said defectors in China have felt troubled since reports emerged that Zhao Leji, the chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress and the third-ranking member of the Chinese Communist Party, discussed plans to strengthen exchanges and cooperation to develop China-North Korea ties when he met with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un during a visit to North Korea on April 11-13.

Defectors in China who were already feeling uneasy after China forcibly repatriated a large number of North Koreans last October now live in extreme fear following the high-ranking Chinese official’s visit to the North, according to the source. 

In fact, anxious North Korean defectors have dramatically grown in number, with word recently going around that “if relations between North Korea and China improve, we’ll all be repatriated.”

North Korean defectors in China say that if Beijing and Pyongyang grow closer, bilateral cooperation on the defector issue will intensify — and if this is the case, they never know when they will be caught and sent back to the North.

According to the source, one defector said if North Korea-China relations improve, “China will present us to the North as a bribe, and we’ll get sent to a place from which we’ll never leave.”

The individual added: “Nowadays, during the day, I’m afraid to even leave my bathroom for fear that somebody is coming to get me, while at night, I suffer nightmares. It doesn’t feel like living.”

Plans to head for South Korea – obviously the defectors' destination of choice – are being abandoned:

After hearing about the recent repatriation of North Korean defectors living in China, an increasing number of defectors there are shelving plans to head to South Korea, Daily NK has learned.

“Reports about recent repatriations have been rapidly spreading here [in China], leaving many defectors anxious and afraid. An increasing number of people are saying they’ve given up any idea of going to South Korea,” a source in China told Daily NK on Monday.

And cases like this, in China's Jilin Province bordering North Korea, don't help:

Jilin Province authorities recently handed down a 10-year sentence to a North Korean defector for human trafficking, Daily NK has learned.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, a Daily NK source in China said last Thursday that police in the city of Songyuan, working in cooperation with police in the city of Baishan, placed two Chinese men and one female North Korean defector under arrest for human trafficking in February.

The trio were put on trial in late April. The two Chinese men were given three years in prison, while the North Korean woman was given 10 years. All three have already begun serving time in prison. 

During their investigation, police in Songyuan seized a list of dozens of North Korean women who had been illegally trafficked into China. They also determined the identities of Chinese nationals who purchased North Korean women.