According to Asahi:
A 63-year-old ethnic Korean woman in Osaka city has become increasingly frustrated over China’s stance that has created a diplomatic imbroglio involving human rights and prevented a long-awaited reunion with her niece.
The niece in her 20s is one of more than 10 defectors from North Korea seeking passage to Japan who remain holed up under protective custody in Japanese diplomatic offices in China, sources said.
The niece has been stuck in China for about 18 months. Another defector has been under protection at a Japanese diplomatic office in China for about two years, according to the sources.
The defectors are ethnic Koreans who used to live in Japan and moved to North Korea under a repatriation program between 1959 and 1984 as well as their kin.
The problem they face is China’s hard-line approach taken against defectors from North Korea after the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics.
China refuses to issue exit permits for the defectors unless the Japanese government promises to end its protection for such people.
The Japanese side has flatly rejected the demand.
“Why wouldn’t the Chinese government approve of their leaving China?” the aunt asked.
The Chinese government said tougher action is needed to prevent a spike in the number of defectors from North Korea.
Although China increasingly deported North Korean defectors following a surge in the mid-1990s, it had in principle allowed defectors staying at foreign diplomatic offices to depart to countries of their choosing.
However, under the current policy, the last authorized departure of a North Korean defector to Japan was in July last year involving a pregnant woman in need of surgery, according to the sources. And that case was approved as an exception.
In January, China notified foreign diplomatic missions of its view that defectors from North Korea should not be given protection.
Beijing told the Japanese side, “If defectors under protection continue to be allowed to leave, the influx of defectors will increase.”
Besides demanding a Japanese oath not to offer protection to the defectors, the Chinese side warned that providing protection outside the premises of diplomatic offices would violate Chinese laws.
But Tokyo refuses to abandon its humanitarian stand based on its own laws.
Under the immigration control law, Tokyo has taken into protective custody former Korean residents of Japan who moved to North Korea as well as their relatives within the third degree of kinship.
In addition, a Japanese law that came into force in 2006 concerning human rights violations in North Korea obliges Tokyo to protect and help defectors from the isolated country.
If such defectors faced barriers in entering a Japanese diplomatic office, Japanese diplomats met them outside to offer protection after confirming their identities in advance.
Japan has eight diplomatic offices in China, including the embassy in Beijing and a consulate general in Shenyang.
So far, nearly 200 defectors have been taken into protective custody and transferred to Japan. But it now does not take in defectors because of China’s new stance.
The aunt in Osaka city also defected from North Korea and returned to Japan after receiving protection in a Southeast Asian country in 2001.
According to groups assisting defectors from North Korea, defectors in recent years have increasingly fled China to Laos and then entered Thailand mainly to avoid being trapped at diplomatic offices in China.
More than 50 percent of 2,952 defectors transferred to South Korea in 2009 came via Thailand.
The aunt was born and raised in Japan, but moved to North Korea in the 1960s under the repatriation program at the insistence of her mother. The aunt’s parents, a younger brother and a younger sister also went.
She married in North Korea and had three children.
But after severe food shortages hit North Korea, the aunt crossed the border alone to seek help from her husband’s relatives in China’s northeastern region.
She was later joined by her second son, and the two made it to Japan.
Her husband and her oldest son defected later, but the aunt’s daughter, her younger sister and her younger brother remain in North Korea.
Her niece fled North Korea after leaving her infant son in the care of her mother.
With the extended family now split, the niece remains stuck in the middle in China.
The aunt said she saw her niece only a handful of times in the past.
“But I am determined to take good care of her like a parent,” the aunt said.
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