Rights group says North Korea runs secret detention facility in Beijing — Korea Herald
Human rights organization Transitional Justice Working Group said that a secret detention facility for North Korean citizens suspected of attempting to flee operates in the basement of the consular section of the North Korean embassy in Beijing, China. According to the organization, people are held there, interrogated and prepared for forced return to North Korea.
As Korea Herald reports, the TJWG report states that several sources identified the basement of the consular section as a place where people are held outside formal legal procedures. The organization called it part of a broader system for monitoring, tracking down and forcibly returning North Koreans whom the North Korean authorities consider potential defectors.
Who is being sought
According to TJWG, the main targets of such operations are diplomats, students abroad, party officials, weapons and science specialists, hackers, overseas workers and other people who may possess information sensitive to North Korea’s leadership. The organization claims that those suspected of trying to flee are sometimes lured to Beijing under false pretenses, after which their passports and mobile phones are confiscated.
A manager of North Korean workers in China, quoted by TJWG, said that people are first held at the embassy for between one week and one month for a preliminary investigation. After being returned to North Korea, they face punishment, he said.
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The case of hacker Pye Yong Ju
The report also describes the case of North Korean hacker Pye Yong Ju, who, according to the group, tried to reach South Korea via Mongolia but was detained by Chinese authorities in Inner Mongolia. After approximately six months of investigation by Chinese state security agencies, he was allegedly transferred through the North Korean Consulate General in Shenyang to the embassy in Beijing.
TJWG claims that Pye Yong Ju was held and interrogated there for about a year. Later, according to the organization, he was placed in a full-body cast and a wheelchair to prevent resistance or escape and to present the forced return as the transport of a patient. He was flown from Beijing to Pyongyang. The organization said it disclosed the man’s name after receiving information about his death in North Korea.
Human rights advocates say that North Korean operations in China may take place both without the knowledge of the Chinese authorities and with their tacit consent or active assistance. TJWG considers such actions serious human rights violations and a possible violation of China’s judicial sovereignty and due legal procedures.
