The United States will keep its door open for North Korean people wanting to flee oppression in their homeland and continue to serve as a "safe haven," a U.S. government-funded broadcaster reported Saturday, quoting a senior U.S. diplomat in Washington.
"We are looking to help facilitate the passage of North Korean refugees into freedom. And to the extent that North Korean refugees would like to come to the United States, that is something that we want to make available," Jay Lefkowitz, Washington's special envoy for North Korean human rights, told Radio Free Asia (RFA).
"Obviously, as long as there are millions of North Koreans who are suffering under really a most brutal dictatorship, it can't be said that we have succeeded in our efforts entirely,”he said, referring to the regime of leader Kim Jong-il and the U.S.'s North Korean Human Rights Act of 2004.
His remarks come as the South Korean government is trying to bring in a group of North Korean escapees, who were arrested in Thailand earlier this week for illegally entering the Southeastern Asian country. Their departure was delayed on Thursday due to safety concerns.
The North Korea refugee issue has been a rising concern for neighboring Asian countries as well as the U.S.
Since the Korean War ended in 1953, about 5,000 North Koreans have fled to the South. More than 100,000 others are also believed to be living in hiding in China, waiting for a chance to travel to the South, according to human rights activists operating in China.
North Korea and China, its main ally, have been cracking down on escapees in China since a family of 17 North Koreans defected to the South in December 1996.
China is supposed to repatriate North Korean defectors to their homeland under a 1986 agreement.
"We are certainly very hopeful that the Chinese government will honor its commitment under international law in terms of treating these North Korean refugees," Lefkowitz said.
The special U.S. envoy, tasked with monitoring human rights abuses in the reclusive state while assisting defectors from there, canceled his planned visit to an inter-Korean industrial complex in the North Korean border town of Kaesong in early July because of the communist country's missile tests on July 5 .
Lefkowitz said he will re-arrange the visit as soon as possible, though not specifying a detailed timeframe.
Seoul, Aug. 26 (Yonhap News)
Washington opens door to N. Korean refugees: U.S. envoy |
