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WASHINGTON : North Korean asylum seekers repatriated home from China face "grave" consequences, including torture and long jail sentences, a new study showed on Tuesday, calling for swift global action.
Those repatriated are singled out for harsher punishment if they are suspected of having religious links, said the study "Prison without bars" by the independent US Commission on International Religious Freedom.
It provides a rare assessment of religious freedom conditions inside the hardline nuclear-armed communist state based on interviews with 32 North Korean refugees and six former security agents from the reclusive state.
The report portrayed what it called "the grave situation" of North Korean asylum seekers forcibly repatriated from China.
The commission called for global action to contain the crisis and said there was sufficient evidence to make a case that North Koreans in China should qualify as refugees under the relevant international standards.
Up to 300,000 North Korean refugees are believed to have fled to China, which calls them economic migrants and forcibly repatriates them back.
"Clearly, religious freedom and other human rights conditions in North Korea remain among the world's most repressive," the commission's chairman, Michael Cromartie, said.
"There continues to be a pressing need on the international level for further, more effective action that addresses the ongoing repression of religious freedom and other human rights in North Korea and the problems of North Korean refugees in China," he said.
The report said that contrary to Chinese government claims, repatriated North Koreans faced "severe persecution, including harsh interrogations, long-term imprisonment, and torture" if found to have converted to Christianity or had contact with South Korean Christians or churches while in China.
It said that a perceived cult of personality surrounding North Korean leader Kim Jong Il and his family "remains strong."
It said that the Kim administration found any new religious activity as "a security threat to be combated at all costs."
As a result, the report said, stringent security measures had been enacted to stop the spread of religion, mostly Protestantism, through cross-border contacts with China.
Former North Korean security agents interviewed testified to increased police infiltration of churches in China and setting up of mock prayer meetings to entrap new converts in North Korea.
In spite of the repression, refugees interviewed attest to the continuing existence of elements of Buddhism, Christianity and traditional folk beliefs, such as Shamanism, in North Korea. - AFP/de
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