Out of an estimated 48 North Korean defectors detained in China, 10 were already repatriated to North Korea on Thursday, a campaigning lawmaker here said.
| See, this is what dictatorships do. Now, try appealing to their humanity... |
Park Sun-young of the Liberty Forward Party said the 10 were part of a group of 25 held at a detention center in Shenyang and were sent to the border town of Dandong on Thursday night and sent back across the border to the North around 11 p.m.
Citing sources in the border area, Park said the group included a 14-month-old baby, a 70-year-old and two 16-year-olds.
Park also said a group of some 50 youngsters from an orphanage in Hyesan, Ryanggang Province recently escaped from the North. She added another 30 youngsters from the same orphanage fled last December, right after the death of leader Kim Jong-il. Twenty of them were caught at the border and were punished but the others managed to escape and are unaccounted for, she said. |