Page 136 - Trilateral Korea Japan U.S. Cooperation

North Korean defectors who do not have Japanese citizenship
are not allowed to enter Japan. However, those who emigrated
to North Korea under the North Korea Return program,
including their family members, are allowed to enter Japan
from a humanitarian standpoint. To date, more than 200
North Korean defectors have entered Japan. About 150 are
living in the Kanto region and 50 in Osaka Prefecture.

We began our efforts to assist North Korean defectors to
enter Japan in 1999. We rescued a family sheltered in a
Korean farming village in Jilin City, and a mother and her two
children sheltered by church officials in Harbin City, both of
whom had defected. The mother and two children escaped
from the North with their father. However, he was detained by
the Chinese Public Security Bureau along the way. The sons
hid in the grass and watched as their father was chained up
and deported back to North Korea. One of the sons left a note
saying he was going to look for his father, and he has not been
heard from since.

Fortunately, the family from Jilin and the mother and son
from Harbin were able to enter Japan via a third country. This
was our first case of protection.

In another case, a mother and three children who had been
exiled to a rural village in North Korea escaped to China, but
the mother and one son were later deported back to North
Korea, where they were tortured. Later these two successfully
escaped again and entered South Korea and then Japan. A
daughter, who remained in China, was also able to enter
Japan.

Chapter Eight : Humanitarian Damage Caused by Chinese Deportation of North Korean Defectors 135