LiNK Press Release (Continued)

Liberation in North Korea (www.linkglobal.org), a nationwide movement that includes several thousand American college students and professionals, will be joined by a coalition of leading American and South Korean organizations to demand China’s release of the 62 North Korean refugees and 2 South Korean activists who were arrested on Oct. 26, 2004 at 4am.

These 62 North Korean refugees are in danger of being sent back to North Korea,where they may be executed. These refugees were reportedly planning to seek asylum in a foreign embassy in Beijing. Intent to defect and contact with South Koreans are considered severe treasonous crimes in North Korea, punishable by execution or detention in a forced-labor camp. If China forcibly repatriates these 62 North Koreans, they will knowingly return the refugees as China has in the recent years repeatedly and blatantly violated refugee conventions by forcibly repatriating thousands of refugees to North Korea. (China is a signatory member of the 1951 U.N. Convention on Refugees.)

China has also imprisoned foreign humanitarian aid workers. In the most recent public statement, the Chinese foreign ministry referred to these aid workers as “snake-heads” and warned of grave punishment for the two South Korean activists in custody. These activists are members of a South Korean human rights group, the Democracy Network Against the North Korean Gulag. Their work, sheltering refugees and providing humanitarian aid, is protected by UN mandates that safeguard human rights defenders.

China cannot avoid international scrutiny for her treatment of North Koreans and their human rights defenders. On November 2, 2004, thousands from around the world will speak out on behalf of the imprisoned North Koreans seeking refuge.

Please join LiNK in our protest against this grave situation by–

1. Participating in a physical protest in front of the China Mission to the UN office in NYC on November 1, 2004 at 1:00 PM.

2. Participating in a simultaneous virtual protest from your home or office by calling, faxing, and emailing the offices below, beginning at 1:00 pm US Eastern Standard Time and 3:00 am Greenwich Mean Time.

Let the concern of the international community for the welfare of the 67 be heard!

Press contacts for this protest:
Jennifer Jun 267.243.7302 jennifer@linkglobal.org
Adrian Hong 203.980.6543 adrian@linkglobal.org