China has repatriated nine North Koreans who fled their homeland despite pleas by South Korea to treat them as refugees and let them stay, news reports said Friday.
South Korea's JoongAng Ilbo newspaper, quoting a defector in Seoul, said the nine were sent back last weekend. Chosun Ilbo also quoted a source as saying nine were returned.
Activists who have been demonstrating in Seoul say the fugitives face severe punishment, or even a death sentence, if forced back to the North.
The South's foreign ministry and legislators have urged China to change its policy of treating the North Koreans as economic migrants, and to give them refugee status.
President Lee Myung-Bak said Wednesday the North Koreans should be treated in line with international rules. Seoul has said it will seek UN support to try to halt the repatriations.
About 30 North Korean refugees have reportedly been caught by Chinese authorities this month and are awaiting repatriation, as their relatives or other supporters in the South campaign to save them.
"My brother in North Korea called me, and said that my female cousin who crossed into China in late February was caught and sent back to North Korea," a North Korean refugee in the South told Yonhap news agency Thursday.
She said eight others were also repatriated.
A Seoul group called North Korea Intellectuals Solidarity said it could confirm that China had recently repatriated three North Koreans, although there might have been more.
More than 21,700 North Koreans have fled to the South since the 1950-1953 war, the vast majority in recent years.
They typically escape on foot to China, hide out and then travel to a third country to seek resettlement in the South.
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