SOUTH KOREA: AMERICAN HUMAN RIGHTS ACTIVIST TIMOTHY PETERS SAYS THAT THE CHINESE AUTHORITIES OFFER PAYMENT TO ENCOURAGE ITS CITIZENS TO DENOUNCE NORTH KOREAN REFUGEES

Record ID: 244503

  • Title: SOUTH KOREA: AMERICAN HUMAN RIGHTS ACTIVIST TIMOTHY PETERS SAYS THAT THE CHINESE AUTHORITIES OFFER PAYMENT TO ENCOURAGE ITS CITIZENS TO DENOUNCE NORTH KOREAN REFUGEES
  • Date: 12th July 2002
  • Summary: (W3) SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA (JULY 12, 2002) (REUTERS) 1. WIDE OF SEMINAR ON NORTH KOREAN REFUGEES 0.06 2. SLV BANNER READING IN KOREAN:"On the procedures to help North Korean Refugees" 0.12 3. (SOUNDBITE) (English) HUMAN RIGHT ACTIVIST TIMOTHY PETERS SAYING "How is it worse? Refugees, in addition to be detained, are now interrogated, and in som
  • Embargoed: 27th July 2002 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA
  • Country: South Korea
  • Reuters ID: LVA81YTOVFFCG4O73L6JIVXG0IAC
  • Story Text: A U.S. human rights activist has said China is offering
    bounty payments to citizens who can provide information about
    North Korean refugees and the missionaries and aid workers
    helping them to seek asylum in foreign embassies.



    American Timothy Peters, who has been in China helping
    the refugees, told a seminar on Friday (July 12, 2002) in South
    Korea's capital Seoul that the Chinese authorities were
    offering bounty payments to encourage its citizens to spot the
    North Koreans.

    China has allowed 64 North Koreans to fly to South Korea
    via a third country since March despite an agreement with
    North Korea to repatriate them, but has hardened its stance
    since the asylum bids at South Korea's consulate began in May.

    "(Any Chinese) citizen who is willing to give information
    as to an individual foreign or domestic, who is helping North
    Korean refugees, is given a bounty of ten times of the amount
    (of giving information on North Korean refugees) -- equivalent
    of 700 (U.S.) dollars," Peters said.

    "How is it worse? Refugees, in addition to be detained,
    are now interrogated, and in some cases tortured in order to
    reveal who has helped them in China," he added.

    Peters, who has testified to the U.S. Senate about the
    refugees' plight, said some 200 foreign missionaries were
    currently detained in China accused of aiding North Korean
    refugees.

    South Korean diplomats said China was known to have
    arrested at least three foreigners for helping migrants from
    the famine-stricken North amid widespread official suspicion
    that foreign groups are guiding asylum seekers and providing
    them with false documents.

    One of the three, South Korean Chun Ki-won, went on trial
    in the northern region of Inner Mongolia earlier this week.

    A court official said he did not know when a verdict would
    be announced. Chun was detained in March for trying to help 15
    North Koreans escape to Mongolia, a way station on the road to
    their final destination, South Korea.

    Peters, who worked with Chun in China, accused the Chinese
    government of abusing the missionary while he was in detention
    awaiting trial.

    "He (South Korean missionary Chun Ki-won) has been given
    the equivalent of one
    piece of coarse wheat bread per day, he's been deprived of
    sleep, he's been asked to clean, he's been forced to clean
    all prison toilets," he said.

    Seoul's National Intelligence Service says 138 North
    Korean defectors have arrived in South Korea this year. Last
    year, a record 583 Northerners defected to the South. A total
    of 2,000 North Korean defectors have now settled in the South.

    North and South Korea remain technically at war. The
    1950-53 Korean conflict ended in an armed truce that has never
    been replaced with a peace treaty.


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