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Thousands of NKorea children face hardship in China: activists
Seoul (AFP) Sept 2, 2008 A newly formed rights group said Tuesday it would launch a campaign to help thousands of North Korean children forced into begging or prostitution in northeast China. The Seoul-based North Korean Human Rights Campaign Organising Committee said it was concerned about orphan refugees and about "stateless" children born to North Korean refugee women and Chinese men. The number of orphans who have fled food shortages and other hardships and crossed into China is now about 2,000, according to committee estimates based on surveys by non-governmental organisations. The committee also told a news conference that more than 10,000 "stateless" children have been born in China over the past decade since famine struck North Korea and swelled the number of migrants. "They manage to sustain everyday life by either begging or prostitution under the threat of being forcibly repatriated," the committee said. China has an agreement with the North to return all refugees as economic migrants. They often face harsh punishment back home. "When it comes to kids, legal or illegal residents, we are supposed to protect them," said Kim Suk-Woo, a former vice unification minister who co-chairs the committee's campaign this year. "China cannot be an exception." He said the committee, consisting of North Korean defectors living in the South and various human rights groups, would campaign to help North Korean children in China. Human Rights Watch, in an April report, also highlighted the plight of the "stateless' children, saying they are being denied a legal identity and the chance to go to school. China's forcible repatriation policy means "an awful choice" for families of mixed Chinese and North Korean parentage, the group said at the time. If they register their children so they can attend school, they risk the mother's deportation to the North. If they do not, the child cannot receive an education. Human rights groups say tens of thousands of North Korean escapees are hiding out in China, many in hopes of eventually moving on to South Korea through a third country. About 14,180 North Koreans have fled to South Korea since the end of the Korean War in 1953. At a summit with President Hu Jintao in Seoul last month, South Korean President Lee Myung-Bak appealed to Hu to change Beijing's policy of forced repatriation. Community Email This Article Comment On This Article Share This Article With Planet Earth
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Envoy urges North Korea to restart nuclear disablement
Seoul (AFP) Sept 1, 2008South Korea's nuclear envoy Kim Sook urged North Korea Monday to restart work to disable its nuclear plants and stop its "typical" brinkmanship in negotiations. |
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