코리아타임즈 New Aspect of Defector Issue

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New Aspect of Defector Issue       Seoul Should Take More Fundamental Approach

The intrusion by 43 North Korean asylum-seekers into the Canadian embassy in Beijing on Wednesday heralds a new phase in the issue of defectors. The Chinese government, which has previously overlooked North Koreans breaking into foreign embassies, is asking Canada to hand over the intruders. On Monday, Chinese police actually took custody of nine defectors who had sought asylum in an American school in Shanghai. Beijing’s hardened policy resulting from the changed environment surrounding defectors is likely to lead to new factors in the issue. Seoul is now negotiating with Beijing to bring to South Korea all the North Koreans who broke into foreign compounds in China last month. Talks seem to have almost concluded for bringing to the South the 29 Northerners who scaled the wall of a Japanese school in Beijing on Sept. 1. Seeing China’s latest change of attitude, however, the process may prove harder and longer than expected. The recent increase in intrusions by defectors into foreign districts in China is due to the closure of the ``Southeast Asian route,’’ following the airlift of 468 Northerners in July. Needless to say, the single biggest factor in the latest developments involving North Korean refugees is the U.S. bill aimed at protecting human rights in the communist country. Pyongyang, which had maintained a ``go-if-you-want’’ stance on defectors until recently, has began to tighten the exit routes, fearing the North Korean Human Rights Act of 2004 will trigger a mass exodus which might lead to the crumbling of the isolationist regime. For Beijing, too, the U.S. bill, and the possible onrush of North Koreans, comes as a major headache not just because of its alliance with Pyongyang but also because of its own internal instability and human rights problems. As some officials here have said, the U.S. bill, apparently aimed at the collapse of North Korea, needs some fine-tuning to harmonize with the ``soft landing’’ policy of Seoul, which cannot handle any event similar to the fall of Berlin Wall on the Korean peninsula. Assuming Washington follows the hardliners’ lead in pushing the human rights issue as one of two means for pressing the reclusive regime, along with Pyongyang’s nuclear programs, a fierce and complicated diplomatic war of nerves will take place not only between the two Koreas but also between China and the United States. For Seoul’s part anyway, it has few other choices but to prepare for such a possibility, diplomatically and domestically. It is urgent for the government to come up with a more fundamental and long-term policy to deal with North Korean defectors and break away from its stopgap approach based on ``quiet diplomacy.’’ It has to sharply expand the facilities for accommodating and educating defectors, while devising better ways to help the Northerners adjust to capitalistic life. First of all, Seoul needs to publish a white paper to review its past policies and identify future directions concerning the issue.