Page 129 - Trilateral Korea Japan U.S. Cooperation

Humanitarian Damage Caused by

Chinese Deportation of North Korean

Defectors

Fumiaki Yamada

Fumiaki Yamada is head of the Tokyo-based Society to Help Returnees to
North Korea. He graduated from Ryukoku University and completed a Doctoral
program at the Graduate School of Economics Osaka University. In 1994 he
formed the Association to Protect the Lives and Human Rights of North Korean
Returnees and in 2002 was appointed representative of the Association to Help
Returnees from Japan to North Korea. In August 2003 he was detained by the
Chinese Public Security Bureau in Shanghai while attempting to help North
Korean defectors seek refuge in the Japanese Consulate in Shanghai and was
subsequently deported. In 2006, the North Korean government issued arrest
warrants for him and several associates for “abducting our people,” in other
words for rescuing North Korean escapees and assisting them in their return to
Japan. In 2012 he was appointed the second representative of the Association for
Protecting the Lives and Human Rights of North Korean Returnees (until 2018).
In 2020 this organization received certification of its non-profit status from the
Tokyo Metropolitan Government.

Section II : Human Rights, Abductees, Forced Repatriation of Refugees and the Regional Implications