Derailed on the Underground Railroad

[Update 7 Jun 06: A hopeful sign? Personally, I think we need to keep the pressure on. My heartfelt thanks to those of you — and I’m hearing from a number of you — who have sent letters, and to the journalists I contacted who have shown great interest in the story. That especially goes for the Yonhap correspondent.]

Via the Christian activist Tim Peters, one of the founders of North Korean refugees’ underground railroad, and reader/teacher/activist Brendan Brown, eight North Korean refugees have been arrested in rural Laos, where they had fled on their long and risky journey from North Korea through China, seeking refuge either in South Korea or the United States. Accompanying them were two South Korean missionaries who were not arrested, but who would not abandon their charges.

Corrupt Lao policemen made it known that the refugees would be released for the price of $500 apiece. Rev. Peters contacted the South Korean and American embassies for help, but received none. He ended up paying the ransom, which was to have bought the refugees a seven-day pass through Laos. Unfortunately, corrupt Lao policemen do not recognize the sanctity of the ransom paid to policemen in neighboring provinces, and the refugees were arrested for a second time on June 3rd. This second group of corrupt Lao policemen arrested the two South Korean missionaries for good measure.

[Abundant use of vitriol in the following paragraph is mine alone. Tim hasn’t a vitriolic bone in his body; he simply reported facts.]

Of course, all of these people are South Korean citizens under Article 2 and 3 of the Republic of Korea Constitution, but if you’re a regular reader of this blog, you already know that the South Korean government does not care about its own abducted citizens, its illegally held prisoners of war, and especially does not care about North Korean refugees or the human rights of those left behind. When it comes to anything that could piss Kim Jong Il off, the policy of the South Korean government is “rot in hell.” The Reverend Peters tried anyway. The Lao authorities even told him that the prisoners would be released to the ROK Embassy, free of charge(!). The predictable result: the South Koreans won’t lift a finger to help either the refugees or the two South Koreans, one of whom has a wedding date set for June 15th. Instead of making wedding plans, the family is flying to Laos to continue its efforts — unsuccessful, thus far — to persuade the South Korean government at least pay its own citizens a visit in jail.

Another ominous fact: there’s a North Korean embassy in Phnom Penh, meaning there’s a distinct danger that these people will end up the same way these people did — in front of a North Korean firing squad.

You can write to the South Korean embassy if you like, but I’ve written South Korea off as both ally and protector of its own people. I publish this mainly to humiliate its leaders, hopefully in the eyes of the Korean media, members of which will get copies of this post. If you really want to help these people, e-mail the Embassy of Laos at laoemb@erols.com laoemb@verizon.net. No need to write anything complex; here’s a sample:

His Excellency Phanthong PHOMMAHAXAY
Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary
Embassy of the Lao Peoples’ Democratic Republic

Your Excellency,

I am writing to express my grave concern for the fate of eight North Korean refugees and two South Korean missionaries who are being held at a local jail in your country. As you may know, hundreds of thousands of people have fled severe political persecution in North Korea. Common forms of persecution there include arbitary arrest, detention, and torture, and the political manipulation of food supplies that uses food as a weapon. Many of these refugees are hiding in China, and others have gone so far as to travel all the way through China and the nations of Southeast Asia in search of refuge.

North Korea considers all of these people to be criminals for fleeing this oppression. Those returned to North Korea against their will are certain to face severe conditions in North Korean prison camps. Others will be executed immediately, often publicly. If any of the refugees are pregnant women or women with infants, recent reports from refugees, published in reputable news media, suggest that the children, both born and unborn, will be murdered. Citing some of these concerns, U.N. Special Rapporteur Vitit Muntarbhorn recently deemed the North Koreans to be “refugees sur place” and opined that involuntarily repatriating them to North Korea would violate the 1951 U.N. Refugee Convention and its 1969 Protocol.

I urge your government to immediately release these ten people, all of whom are legally citizens of the Republic of Korea under Articles 2 and 3 of the Republic of Korea Constitution, and grant them safe passage to the Embassy of the Repubic of Korea in Vientiane. If the Republic of Korea Embassy refuses to meet its constitutional and international obligations to accept all ten of these refugees, I am confident that the U.S. Embassy in Vientiane will do so pursuant to the North Korean Human Rights Act of 2004, which requires U.S. embassies to allow North Korean refugees to present applications for political asylum. U.S. consular facilities in Southeast Asia are complying with these legal requirements, in part because the human rights of North Koreans are a matter of great concern to the American people.

We thank you in advance for the use of your good offices to save the lives of these innocents. Any adverse reaction by the North Korean government will be fleeting. It is the gratitude of the Korean and American peoples that will endure. Thank you.

Sincerely,

Cut, paste, send, pat self on back. It’s that easy. If you’d like to help the Rev. Peters cover the costs of paying this blood money, you can contribute here. Thank you.

[Update: thanks to the reader who corrected the Lao Embassy’s e-mail address, which appears to be working.]